Mortality
by x.Redd.Phoenix.Flamez.x
Summary: MoviexMoonlight.When Alice disappears,Carlos enlists the help of 2 vampire friends.Turns out,he's more than what he seems when a secret is revealed.But how long will his secrets last with his haunting past,a lover,and a war he and the others need to fight
1. Prolouge

**_Well Hello. I'm Redd and this is my first fic. My friend -some of you know her as DragonPhoenix16- encouraged me to put this story up here. Like her, I love the Alice/Carlos relationship from the movies and I got this idea for this story. This is going to cross over with some TV shows and maybe a movie and will go crazy so if you like complex storylines then you'll love this. Hope you enjoy the prolouge and tell me what you think._**

* * *

_**This is a movie based fic and it follows the events of RE:A. I don't know if there'll be an Extinction part of this.**_

**_Pairings (so far): Alice/Carlos_**

* * *

PROLOUGE: NIGHTMARES?

_How did they find us?_ Alice Prospero asked herself as she ran into the large structure where Carlos Olivera, Jill Valentine, LJ Wayne, and little Angela Ashford disappeared into.

It had been weeks since the others saved her from Umbrella and now it seems that the corporation either still wants her or wants her friends dead. Either way, she wasn't going to allow that to happen.

Just as bullets tore at her surroundings, she dove into through the building's doors and rolled off to the side where her friends were. Her strawberry blonde hair was already mussed up as she leaned on the column. The whole group was hiding behind some large column in the lobby.

Carlos loaded his assault rifle and Jill slammed ammo cartridges into the magazine of her handguns. Her dark hair caught the scant light that was reflected into the room. Her dark blue eyes scanned something near the entrance before she cocked the trigger on the 9mms she had in her hands. Alice loaded her shotgun as LJ pulled Angie away from all the weapons and towards an exit hallway.

"You sure this is gonna work?" LJ asked.

"What?" Alice asked them and looked to Carlos. As usual, she found herself staring directly into those warm and sincere brown eyes and found herself unable to look away from him. "What is going to work?"

"Olivera's bright plan of shooting those guys," Jill replied," We've got near dead aim. We can take on those fuckers."

"Just aim and shoot. Pretty easy," Carlos smiled, "Let's try it, shall we?"

Alice just smiled at that. It was time to kill. They heard the doors shatter and agents swarm in. Jill took shelter at another pillar as Carlos and Alice hid behind one large one. LJ and Angie hid in one room and locked the doors. The last thing Alice spotted of the pair was Angela's dark red hair disappearing behind the door.

Carlos held up three fingers, he was counting down. He then dropped one finger…._.two_……_one_. He turned and blasted at the agents he had seen as he leaned out to shoot. Alice pumped the shotgun and shot two agents, a third she killed using whatever mind-blowing ability she had acquired over her three week stay in an Umbrella fish tank. Jill took out six and wounded a seventh as she fired continuously. Carlos and Alice saved their ammo but Jill kept firing and kept hitting them. Suddenly, fire came from their sides and Carlos cried out in pain. A bullet had hit his side.

"Carlos!" Jill and Alice shouted as gunfire continued. With shots filled anger and retribution for the attack on him, Alice shot over and over until her shotgun was emptied. That was at least half a dozen shots and by the time the corpse fell to the floor it wasn't a body that fell but parts of it. Carlos saw that and even as Alice planned to shoot he moved the gun away and stared at her.

"Alice, he's dead." he told her and held his side which was spewing blood.

"Get him out of here, Alice!! Get the others out of here! I'll take care of these guys!! I promise I'll meet with you okay?" Jill yelled as she slammed more ammo into the magazines.

Alice nodded to her, but little did she know her friend was lying. She turned to Carlos and moved his bloody hand away from the wound.

"I need to get the bullet out." she informed him replacing the pressure on the wound by placing her hand where his was. With her free hand she tucked a loose lock of her hair behind her ear to keep it away from her eyes.

"That's gonna sting isn't it?" Carlos asked with a relaxed tone as he leaned his head back against the column.

"You'll feel it." she assured and concentrated on removing the bullet embedded in his flesh. It slipped from the blood and everything and flew into her hand. Carlos restrained a yell as the bullet was taken out but soon the pain lessened and the blood started to stop flowing.

"Jill, you can take them?" Alice asked as she helped Carlos up.

"Go, just go!" she yelled not wanting to answer the question anymore. Alice just nodded, knowing Jill was strong. She knocked on the door and got LJ and Angie out of their hiding place. First, she'd get everyone out of here, then go and help Jill, who was firing madly at the people that were firing at her.

The group of four made it half way through the structure before the familiar roars of the undead filled the hallways.

"Oh, fuck us." LJ muttered as Alice and Carlos turned to the hallway to see zombies heading towards them. LJ drew his signature golden Desert Eagles and Carlos drew a pair of .45s. Alice had a Glock in one hand and a Walther P99 in another. They pointed it at the end of the hall and began to fire, one by one. It went in order from most experience to least. Carlos because of his training went first, then Alice with her dead aim and lastly LJ. Angie stood behind Carlos and then turned to LJ. The whole group failed to notice a hallway to their backs.

"Look out!" she screamed and Alice whirled around to her left but not fast enough. An undead person sank their teeth into LJ's flesh. It turns out that the corridor right behind them had been filling and was being filled because the undead were attracted to the noise of the gunfire. More of the undead grabbed him and pulling him into the corridor not bothering with the other three.

"LJ!" Alice shouted and grabbed his hand to pull him out. Carlos finished the zombies at the hall and tried to pull their friend back but LJ let go of both of their hands.

"Get the kid outta here! Get yourselves fucking outta here!" LJ yelled trying to do something good for once. He had served as Angela's babysitter, now he was a hero valiantly sacrificing himself for the remaining three. He didn't know that but to Alice, Carlos and Angie, they saw it that way.

"LJ!" Carlos yelled back and tried to drag him out of there. He was not going to lose a friend to the undead, not again. Instead, some woman grabbed his wrist and sank her teeth into his forearm.

"Carlos, no!!!" Alice screamed and pulled the agent away from the mass that were turning to them with the scent of fresh blood. Alice snapped necks to keep them away from Carlos for he was the only human left. The infected ignored Alice and Angie because they too had the T-Virus, but they weren't ignoring Carlos.

Finally, she broke enough necks until there were only those that were feasting on LJ, who by now was long gone from this world. Seeing the blood flow towards them, Alice, Carlos, and Angie tried not to gag, but they knew whose blood that was. Then in order to keep the undead from getting to Jill, Carlos slammed his fist on a button that sealed off the corridor by sliding steal doors.

Alice turned to the former Umbrella agent and saw the blood streaming from his side and blood from his arm now leaving a trail on the floor. Carlos caught his friend's worried gaze and looked back to the spilled blood but saw more than there should've been.

"Alice, are you bleeding?" he asked as he stopped dead and turned to her.

"No." Alice replied and saw the exact same thing he did. Too much blood was trailing them. Carlos's arm was dripping blood but not that much. The two of them turned to Angela who looked up at them with the most innocent eyes.

"I just wanted to help him." she admitted and showed that her arm had a deep bite on it.

"Angie!" Carlos shouted seeing the gory bite on the little girl's arm stare at him.

"I just wanted to help." she repeated with a little cry in her voice. Alice took the little girl in her arms.

"We know." she whispered, "We know."

Suddenly, there was a loud crash that echoed through the empty hall. Carlos drew his gun and Alice pushed Angie behind her. They stared at the end of the hallways and waited. Waited for something to appear.

Finally, Alice heard the near inaudible steps of the Special Forces. Then there were some steps that broke the near silent pattern. So there was someone leading them. Someone important who needed the Special Forces and not ordinary agents.

"Run!" she shouted to Carlos and Angie but they didn't move and the steps were getting closer. She turned to both of them, "Run! I'll take care of them and I'll meet you at the exit hall."

Carlos nodded and took Angie by the hand. The two of them then turned at the end of the corridor behind Alice and ran down. Suddenly, the Special Forces turned the corner in front of her and marched down firing at Alice.

She easily dodged most of the bullets and fired most of her own to hit them. With her telekinesis she shot some bullets back to kill the rest of them. It was then when the agents were gone that a man emerged from the hall they came from. He had some sort of suit jacket and formal wear. He had short brown hair and amber-brown eyes. He was some sort of Umbrella official and Alice knew she saw him before.

"Project Alice, it's so good to meet you." he said with a malevolent smile. "Ready to come with me?"

"Ready to die?" she asked as she fired her gun. He dived into the hall and she took her cue to get away, but she didn't fail to shoot him, for she hit his leg. She ran towards the end of the hall just in time to hear one gunshot ring through the air.

"No." she gasped as she ran to the end to see that Carlos was sitting and leaning against a column. He obviously hit the column standing and then slumped to the ground for there was a trail of blood on the straight beam. But in front of him was the body of a bleeding girl. "No!!" Alice screamed.

She ran with remarkable speed towards the two and attended to Angie. She saw the bullet in her head and turned to Carlos. _Why?_ she was about to ask when she saw he had sustained three more bites, but this time, they were much smaller. The smaller wounds caused by someone, a child. He was losing more and more blood with every second that they were there.

When she turned to the little girl she saw that her skin was pale, the wound had stopped bleeding but had remained red with blood, and blood that was not her own stained her teeth. She had been turned because the T-Virus only cancelled the one she had in her blood. There was the only explanation of her body giving up because the immune system was too weak. She had been turned in a matter of fifteen minutes.

Carlos coughed up blood and Alice left the little girl's body there to attend to him. Right, now he was the only one left and then, Jill would come to them soon. It would only be the three- An explosion rocked the whole structure and wiped out the front of the building. As it started to shake the couple realized the place was going to collapse.

"We need to get out of here!" Carlos yelled as Alice grabbed the body of the little girl and then helped him up. The two of them ran out of there just as the place collapsed in on itself.

"Jill," Alice muttered and realized that there was no way Jill could've survived.

The whole front of the building had been taken out and the rest fell on top of it. Alice laid the body of Angie on the ground and then turned to the last person she had left in her life, Carlos. She grabbed the antivirus from her pouch that she thought she'd have time to give to Angie, not anticipating that the girl would turn in a matter of minutes. Using what should've been meant for the little girl, Alice felt a little guilty for using it to save Carlos's life. But as she was about to give it to him she saw that his blood was already pooling around him and he was pale and losing consciousness.

"Don't." he whispered his voice hoarse and a little abrupt, "Don't waste it."

"What're you talking about? This'll save your life!" she shouted at him but he shook his head.

"I'm already dead." he said, "I've lost already too much blood. There's no way I'm gonna recover all that."

"No, there'll be a way. I can-"Alice started a little frantically but Carlos shook his head.

"It's not going to work." he said his voice already dying off.

"Carlos?!" she asked and raised her voice, "Carlos?!! No! No, don't do this! Hang in there, please."

But it was no use. Carlos was dying on her. He was losing consciousness and then he'd lose his life.

"Carlos?!" Alice asked as she tilted his face towards hers. "Please, you're the only one I have left. You're the only one." she cried and felt tears for all her lost friends sting her eyes, "Please, don't. Hang on-"It was soft but Alice heard him as he faintly nodded to her in reply.

"For you." he whispered but lost consciousness.

Alice got to work treating his wounds, but she concentrated too much on healing him that she hadn't heard the footsteps of the people behind her. She knew she'd be able to save him. She would, and she smiled when she saw her friend show signs of gaining consciousness. Just as Carlos started to stir, Alice felt arms grab her and pull her away from him.

"No!" she screamed as she fought them and killed the person that had dragged her back. She tried to run to Carlos but even more and more men flooded from out of nowhere. She used her telekinesis to blast all of them back but then strong arms wrapped around her and dragged her away from her stirring friend. " No!!! Let me go!!! Carlos!! No!!!"

Agents approached him and drew their Glocks and Alice knew he wasn't awake, yet. A scream of protest ripped from her throat as gunshots echoed in the air. She could sense death, and at the gunshots she knew. She lost everyone. She lost Jill and LJ and Angie and couldn't stop the men from taking Carlos away from her. It was all her fault. She struggled against the strong arms that held her and restrained her from saving a life.

"Stop it." the man said to her but it was in _his_ voice.

"No, it can't be." she whispered and struggled even more to turn to face him but couldn't.

"Alice, stop! Alice!!" came an order. "Alice, wake up! Wake up!"

_Wake up? _Alice asked herself and prayed that she could. She found herself praying that this was a nightmare and she'd shortly wake. Soon, she found her eyesight spiraling into a total abyss.

* * *

**_So, interesting? Boring? Tell me what you think. If you want to know this may cross over with the television show called Moonlight and that may have just made all of you give up on this story. Oh, well. Here's a little preview for the next chapter. It's not final yet so there's going to be some changes to this._**

CHAPTER ONE: NOT ALONE

After the incident and all that, Carlos Olivera hadn't been the same. The company he was a loyal agent to was not the corporation he thought they were. He thought they were some corporation with a SWAT for protection. Not a government funded corporation using the money for illegal experimentation with a virus meant to cure a little girl from her disease. Other than that they turned a man into a non-recognizable creature out of a horror movie and mutated a woman to have powers that classifies her as a superhuman. Carlos wasn't the same person, he sided with his corporation's enemies becoming the hunted along with, he had to admit, the beautiful Alice Prospero, the woman that had been mutated by the virus, the tough but striking Jill Valentine, a Raccoon City Cop who was part of STARS, innocent Angela Ashford, the daughter of the Head Programmer Charles Ashford and the original recipient of the original virus, and street-talker, Lloyd Jefferson Wayne or LJ Wayne, a sole civilian survivor of the city.

Two friends were human and two other were only superhuman. But Carlos himself was far from human. He looked human but he wasn't. He avoided the sun and barely slept at all. He sometimes heard things that others couldn't hear at all and like Alice he had superhuman abilities. He wasn't infected with the T-Virus but still- he wasn't human. He couldn't even be classified as one. If you look at him you can say he is a mortal but in the eyes of the night he was predator and a killer all on his own. The guns he had been trained to use made him more deadly, but they didn't change him. They had no affect on who and what he was. But like his past, he kept it a secret and his friends and only allies with him knew him as a former agent for Umbrella like Alice. The thing was, Jill, LJ, Angie, and Alice think he _is_ human. They didn't know the truth and he planned to keep it that way.

Three weeks after the Raccoon City Incident, Carlos, Jill, and LJ with Angie went and rescued Alice from Umbrella and hoped that nothing else had happened to her. Now, it's been at least four weeks since that. Every two days the group would pull over in a motel and check in for the night, they'd gas up and head out of there. It was an efficient plan. And in order to keep suspicion away from himself, Carlos let the others take over some of the work. He had already mastered the look of someone asleep and it was rather easy. Then, when everyone else couldn't do whatever needed to be done, he'd pick it up and would always do what he needed to do until the next rest stop. All they were doing was trying to hide from Umbrella and the radar. But little by little, they saw towns fall to the infection.

Umbrella was getting good at covering up their mess and they quarantined most of the areas so the Virus wasn't going to spread fast. If the group of renegades was going to take down the corporation before the world fell, then they'd better be fast and they needed to find a cure also. Because time was running out. Speaking of time-

Carlos was thinking about this when he heard a scream echo into the night. He scrambled to his feet from his post outside the door and into the room. He did this almost every night when they pulled up to stop. He was just waiting for when she would start and apparently this time she was a little bit close to dawn with this nightmare. Suddenly, another scream shattered the rest of his thoughts.

**_Any thoughts?_**

**_-Redd_**


	2. Chapter 1: Not Alone

**_Alright, here's the next chapter and I'm thinking about making the rest narrated first person instead of third. Should I? Oh and this chapter is just going to be a little mushy._**

* * *

CHAPTER ONE: NOT ALONE

There was no such thing as sleep for the former agent of Umbrella. He worked for the Special Forces. He was the leader of the Umbrella Biohazard Containment Squad…or was it Force.

_It doesn't matter anymore._ Carlos Olivera thought as he sat outside the door to the motel room. Recalling his former job wasn't the reason why he didn't sleep.

It's been weeks since they saved her- Alice- and since then, he, Alice, Jill, LJ and Angie were on the run from Umbrella and the government. The world on the other hand had managed to stay the same- sort of. The public believed Umbrella and because of that Carlos and Jill were wrongly accused for the horrendous albeit truthful tape that had chronicled Umbrella's evil from the beginning at Raven Gate Bridge. It caught Cain locking the gate, the priest's fiery speech, the last images of Peyton Wells, the death of Terri Morales, Alice Prospero's confession and much more. The tape was supposed to end Umbrella and its threat to the world. But- no. It did the exact opposite and after a few weeks the blame was turned to Carlos and Jill. It was then that the two realized that they needed Alice back more than ever.

After the incident and all that, Carlos hadn't been the same. The company he had been loyal to was not the corporation he thought they were. He thought they were some corporation with a SWAT for protection, not a government funded corporation using the money for illegal experimentation with a virus meant to cure a little girl from her disease. Other than that they turned a man into a non-recognizable creature out of a horror movie and mutated a woman to have powers that classifies her as a superhuman.

Yes, Carlos wasn't the same person. He sided with his corporation's enemies becoming the hunted along with, he ha to admit, the beautiful Alice Prospero, the woman that had been mutated by the virus, the tough but striking Jill Valentine, a Raccoon City cop who was part of the STARS, innocent little Angela Ashford, the young daughter of the Head Programmer Charles Ashford and the original recipient of the original virus, and street-talker, Lloyd Jefferson Wayne or LJ Wayne, the sole civilian survivor of the city.

Two friends were human, one was 'cured' by the Virus, and one was superhuman. But Carlos himself was far from human. He looked human- but he wasn't. He avoided the sun and barely slept at all. He sometimes heard things that others couldn't hear at all and like Alice, he had superhuman abilities; only thing is he doesn't use them…in plain view. No, he wasn't infected with the T-Virus but still- he was not human. He couldn't even be classified as one. If you look at him, sure, you can say he is a mortal, but in the eyes of the night he was a predator and a killer all on his own. The guns he had been trained to use made him more deadly, but they didn't change him. They had no affect on what and who he was. But like his past, he kept it a secret and his friends and only allies with him knew him as a former agent for Umbrella, like Alice. The thing was- Jill, LJ, Angie, and Alice thing he _is_ human. They didn't know the truth and he planned to keep it that way.

Three weeks after the Raccoon City Incident, Carlos Jill and LJ with Angie went and rescued Alice from Umbrella and hoped that nothing else had happened to her. Now, it's been at least for weeks since that. Every two days the group would pull over in a motel and check in for the night. Then they'd gas up before heading out of there. It was an efficient plan. And, in order to keep suspicion away from him, Carlos let the others take over some of the work although he could've done it all himself. He had also already mastered the look of someone asleep and it was rather easy to fool his friends. He did sleep though, but rarely- he didn't need to. Then, when everyone else couldn't do whatever needed to be done, he'd pick up where they left and would always do everything else until the next stop.

Right now, all they were doing was trying to hide from Umbrella and the radar. But little by little, they saw towns fall to the infection. Umbrella was getting good at covering up their mess and they quarantined most of the areas so the Virus wouldn't spread fast. If the group of renegades was going to take down the corporation before the world fell, then they'd better be fast and they needed to find a cure also because time was running out. Speaking of time-

Carlos was thinking about this when he heard a scream echo into the night. He scrambled to his feet from his post and into the room. He did this almost every night when they pulled to a stop. He was just waiting for when she would start and apparently this time she was a little bit close to dawn with the nightmare. Suddenly another scream shattered the rest of his thoughts.

No one else would come to her aid. Only him. That was only because LJ was a deep sleeper and Jill and Angie were on the other side of the motel-both were deep sleepers. But before Alice was rescued, Angie had nightmares, but it had stopped as soon as they had gotten Alice away from Umbrella. Since then, the little girl and her main guardian never woke until morning. It only left Carlos to help her.

He rushed into the room and saw her in the moonlight. From where he stood he saw she was pale and sweating. Alice thrashed around a bit and Carlos knew he needed to restrain her- like he needed to do every other night. Carlos ran to her side and, sitting on the edge of the bed, he wrapped his arms around her to keep her from thrashing around and preventing her from hurting herself. He tried to wake her.

"Alice!" he shouted to her as she was writhing against him. When she found she couldn't escape his grip she started to scream "NO!!" and he yelled over her. "Alice, it's me! Wake up!"

But it seems like she didn't hear him because she kept screaming "No!!!" and then pounded her fists against his chest, but Carlos was able withstand it even though it felt like a sting against him. He knew that Alice was using the strength the T-virus provided her with, but he- with what he was- was able to take the blows. It hurt him and it did leave a cruise but it always disappeared. Funny thing was every time bruises from the last time disappeared they were replaced with new ones. Alice writhed harder this time.

"No!! Let me go!! Carlos!! No!!!" she screamed as if in protest. But Carlos's grip on her became firmer. In the previous times she had had a nightmare, Alice never mentioned any names- this was a first.

"Stop it." he said to her and she calmed down a bit. "Alice, stop! Alice!!!" he yelled, "Alice, wake up!! Wake up!!

Her breathing eventually slowed and Carlos shouted her name once more. With that, Alice gasped for breath as she woke and looked up to see her friend, who right now was her rescuer.

"Carlos." she whispered in relief and her voice was a bit teary.

"Alice, what's wrong?" he asked but knew it was a stupid question. The dreams were troubling her and now it was involving him- but Carlos left that out.

The first night he had done this- wake her up, Alice explained that she was having nightmares of something but sometimes she'd tell him what it was about and other times she wouldn't. He eventually saw a pattern between them. Alice was having nightmares of possible events that could happen if Umbrella ever caught them. Either that or she was recalling flashbacks of the life as an ordinary person- which was what she wanted back- and then it would be ripped away from her. One way or another it followed that and this time Carlos could tell that this nightmare was one of the 'possibility' nightmares.

Alice didn't answer him. She was still trying to gather herself from the event of the nightmare and found her breathing speeding up as he asked her, "What was the nightmare about this time?"

She recalled it all in a flash before her eyes and it almost sent her to tears. Carlos was still sitting at the edge of the bed and had already let go of her.

"Carlos." she cried as she threw her arms around him, startling him for a moment before he wrapped his arms around her in turn. "The others?" Are the others alright?"

"You know I'd never let anything happen to them" he answered her which was his way of saying, "Yes."

"I know." she whispered quietly and looked up into his chocolate brown eyes.

Carlos found himself staring into a pool of ice blue eyes that were so scared. He had gotten to read emotions pretty well and he's never seen Alice so scared- never seen her like this. He's known Alice as the toughest and strongest woman he's ever met. He wasn't intimidated by her at all and thought her as an equal but nonetheless, she was still human. She could never be his equal for good reason.

"Alice, are you going to be alright?" he asked, his voice filled with worry for her.

"I'll be fine." she lied as she eased out of his arms and back onto the bed. Carlos got off and was about to walk out when- "Carlos."

"Yeah?" he turned to her.

"I-" she started but couldn't finish. Her eyes were darting away from his gaze and she looked down, but Carlos didn't need her to finish. He knew what she wanted to say- She was scared.

"Want me to stay?" he asked.

She didn't answer.

"I'll stay." he said walking to bed and soon he was lying next to her, "I'll keep the nightmares away." he assured.

Alice didn't need to say how grateful she was as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close to him. Her head lay on his shoulder and her hand on his chest. Her body was against the side of his. Sure she was being childish about being scared but right now, she didn't want him going out there on his own. She had failed him in her dream. She saw the agents pull the trigger on him and kill him. The thoughts that were running through her head at that time- she recalled all of it and realized that she wanted nothing more than to be in his arms.

Slowly, Alice fell asleep- Carlos however didn't. The moonlight rode in through the window an lit the room. He looked at the sleeping beauty next to him.

"Alice." he whispered.

She had no idea how lucky she was. He knew that she felt like a freak, but comparing his life to hers- you could tell who the freak really was. At least Alice could taste food and not have to worry about walking out into the sun without having to worry about dying. Speaking of which, he needed to stop by a morgue. He resisted the temptation to take the blood flowing in the woman sleeping at his side.

It was rare that he slept but it wasn't impossible. He closed his mind to everything except for Alice's pulse which kept him somewhat calm. He shut out the sound of the night around him and slowly he fell asleep.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Lack of warmth next to him made Carlos realize that Alice wasn't by him. He woke up and looked around. He took in the scent of the air around him and smelled the past. It replayed in his mind as if it were a memory. It showed Alice had woken up somewhat later after the two had fallen asleep. She had taken Carlos's assault rifle and had something glittering in her hands. It took Carlos a moment but he recognized it as Jill's badge.

Alice was standing over his sleeping form and tears fell from her eyes.

"I'm sorry." she whispered giving him a light kiss on the lips before leaving the room and leaving the building.

Carlos opened his eyes and realized that Alice was gone.

"Damn it." he muttered as he closed the blinds. He couldn't go after her now. It was daytime. He could hear Jill wake up. "Oh, shit." he muttered. _How was he going to explain all this to the others?_ All of a sudden a pang of hunger hit him. _Shit, I need to find a morgue. Now!_

_

* * *

_

**Alright, whaddya think. Introduction of Moonlight next chapter. But should it be narrated first or third.**

**-Redd**


	3. Chapter 2: Vampires and Friends

**_So sorry! This chapter was long overdue. But I had no idea how to write it out. Not a lot of AC in this but there is going to be A LOT in the next chapter. Anyways, here we have the introduction of Moonlight and our two favorite vampires and our favorite BuzzWire reporter are here._**

* * *

CHAPTER TWO: VAMPIRES AND FRIENDS

**TWO WEEKS LATER**

Carlos knew the cardinal rule of how to survive and there were four beating pulses in the car. It had been three days without blood and he sacrificed everything to get them away from the Umbrella facility in the last town- now he was paying the price for his bold actions. Blood. He needed it. The rule: If _you_ wanted to live- _you_ take blood from the closest perosn. But no- he refused the animal instinct and loathed that a part of him would even think the horrible thought of-

"Hang in there, Carlos." said little Angela Ashford to her rescuer from Raccoon City as she sat next to him. She glanced out into the dark. It was a perfect cover for them after all they were fugitives.

She took some ice cubes and put it into a towel and placed it on Carlos's forehead. She had taken it upon herself to make sure he was going to be fine. But so had everyone else.

"Thanks, Angie." he said weakly. But the girl's efforts were futile. Lack of blood and too much exposure to the sun. A very deadly combination.

The girl smiled back as Jill glanced back into the driver's window.

"We've got a diner up ahead." she said as she pulled into a parking lot. "LJ, grab some food." she ordered as she got out and ran over to the passenger side to open the door to where Carlos was lying in a reclined seat.

Angie removed the wet towel and Jill pressed the back of her hand against his forehead.

"Damn it!" she cursed under her breath. "Angie, keep the ice on him."

She tilted Carlos's face towards her. "We're taking you to a hospital, okay?" she asked.

"No." he whispered, his voice scratchy.

"No?!" she asked, "Look, you're dying!!"

"Caught." he pointed out. It was all he needed to say to bring up his point. If he were ever registered into a hospital, he'd be found out eventually. "Where...are we?"

"L.A." Jill answered him. "We are definitely-"

"No, Jill." he said, "No...hospit-al."

"Damnit! What then? Leave you to die?!" she shouted.

L.A? L.A? L.A? Who the hell did Carlos know that lived in L.A? In fact, he thought of two names and knew that one of them would be easier to get in contact than the other.

"Phone...book." he whispered.

"What was that?" Jill asked and turned to Angie who repeated.

"I think he said 'phone-book'."

"Who, Carlos?"

"Mick. Mick St.John." he said quietly and felt his voice starting to fade.

Jill ran to a telephone booth and found one of those yellow pages book. She pulled it out and looked up the name. Her finger went down the S-page until she found his name. There was also an address because apparently he was a-

"P.I? What the fuck?" she asked herself and faced Carlos. She ran into the diner and grabbed LJ who was just walking out.

"Ow! Ow! Hey, easy on the grip!" LJ yelled as he was basically being dragged back into the car.

"Carlos is dying in there! We need to move!" Jill said.

"Where? The cops'll get us if we go to a hospital and anywhere else- Carlos'll die!" LJ pointed out.

"He has a friend. A P.I." Jill replied glancing down at the sheet in her hand.

"Oh, hell no! I-"the man started in protest. He had enough dealings with cops and agents and now Private Investigators. No, way.

"It doesn't matter. It's a friend of Carlos's. We'll have to go with his death wish on this one." Jill said against her better judgement. She didn't want to trust anyone outside the group. Hell, even Alice left them two weeks ago for some bizzarre reason.

But as they got into the car and drove off, they didn't realize they with every passing second they were getting closer to even more danger.

"Who is this P.I?" LJ asked as they pulled up at a secret spot.

"A Mr. Mick St. John." Jill answered.

"Well, call him." LJ suggested and the former cop nodded as she looked for her cell phone but found that it wasn't there. "What?" he asked when he saw the look on her face.

"I think I lost my cell phone." she said.

"Are...we here?" Carlos asked them.

"Yeah." Jill said turning to him.

"Good. I've got to go." he said as he forced himself up.

"Oh, fuck no, Carlos!! You sit your ass back down and we'll go get your friend."

"Jill, you've got...to trust me on this." he said as he opened the door, got out and headed towards the lobby of the building.

"If he lives..."Jill said acerbically, "I get to kill him."

**0o0o0o00o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

While all of this was happening, Josef Konstantin was at his computer. His new technician had called him because of something he had seen in his news media research. According to him, he ran a face recognition on someone and apparently he turned up to be in the vampire database. A base he had created using old files and photos.

Josef thought, _What the hell? It's probably a new vamp_. He turned on the screen and opened the news article along with many video links that had been mailed to him.

"The hell?" he muttered as he scrolled down to read.

_"The Raccoon City tape has been discredited and now the authorities are searching for the perpetrators, Jill Valentine and Carlos Olivera. Valentine was a recently suspended R.C.P.D officer while Olivera is a former agent for Umbrella's Special Forces. Anyone that has seen these people are to contact the number..."_ Josef read and continued to look on more articles on the whole story. He got more than he wanted to know.

"What the fuck have you gotten yourself into now?" Josef asked himself as he picked up the phone and dialed Mick St. John's number.

Mick was a Private Investigator and he knew the man as well.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

Mick St.John heard the call and picked up. He was a P.I and either the call would be a client, Josef or...

"Mick?" came the voice of BuzzWire's star reporter Beth Turner, her specialty was murders in L.A and she had the knack of intertwining herself in the P.I's cases most of them supernaturally related. The BuzzWire reporter had come out of her grieving cycle over her boyfriend and possible fiance.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"I've got a story that I think you'll love. You've heard about the Umbrella scandal, right?" she asked him sounding very anxious. Mick knew that a story was exactly what Beth needed.

"Heard about it. Never saw any stories for it." he admitted. He never watched the news and kept track of murders through Beth's reports on the internet channel. As for where he heard the Umbrella scandal, that was all thanks to a contact of his in the police department that told him accusations and hoax tapes were being thrown around everywhere.

"Well, then you'll love this. I'm gonna drop by." Beth said.

"Josef'll be here." he told her.

"Good, the more vamps the better." she teased before she hung up. Mick smiled as he hung up the phone.

"I even heard that!" came a shout from outside the door.

Mick knew the voice at once and was there before the bell even rang. He opened the door to let Josef in.

"The more vamps the better for what?" Josef asked him walking in to his third home. The first was the one in New York with his sleeping love, the second was the company he ran in L.A and the third..well, he was in his third home- Mick's place.

"Something Beth found out about the Umbrella scandal." Mick told him and saw his friend's amazed stare. "What?"

"The girl hit the story, too?" Josef said more to himself instead of answer to Mick. The reporter had ceased to amaze the four-centurian vampire who never saw some so determined and inquisitive as Beth Turner. It was also strange that the two of them came across the same story and contacted the same person.

"What're you talking about?" Mick asked him as Josef moved for a seat and Mick went to his stash of blood hidden begind glasses in a secret compartment.

"There's something you should know about one of the fugitives. Know their names?" Josef asked tossing his light jacket onto a sofa.

"I think one is Valentine and another is Prospero." Mick replied knowing there was a third but hadn't really paid attention to the contact that had told him.

"You're missing the number one guy that I'm after. And besides, Prospero isn't wanted..strangely." Josef said his last word more like a whisper.

"Who's the number one guy?" Mick asked taking a blood pack.

There was also blood in the fridge but right now Mick knew Josef didn't really want any of that. Warm blood was more of Josef's taste- In fact, blood directly from a live human is the best. But Mick took his blood from a morgue. Rarely had he ever fed on a human other than the time in the desert when his immortal life was about to come to an end. Mick was about to pour a glass when he heard a pound on his door.

Beth would knock but that was besides the point. Mick and Josef were vampires. Blood-sucking, night-walking, immortal beings that could only be killed in a few ways: deprivation of blood, long exposure to sunlight, beheading, or fire. Either one could kill an immortal nightwalker. Along with being a vampire, it meant that time would be nothing. You'd sleep like the dead- ice cold, or some vamps have special adaptations that enable them to sleep like ordinary humans for a certain amount of time. Then, there's the fact that vampires can sense other vampires- This is where the knock comes in. From where they were, Josef and Mick could sense the immortal being on the other side of the door.

"Mick!!!" the person shouted. It was scratchy like that of an growl.

"Oh my god." the two men said at once and ran to the door. Mick was there first and opened the door only to catch the falling person.

The P.I glanced up at Josef to confirm his thoughts about the dark-haired man that had just fallen in. Mick and Josef leaned the man against the wall.

"Oh, shit. I think he hasn't had blood." Mick realized seeing the pallid complexion of the person. He was even too weak to draw his fangs.

"No, he's smarter than that. He-" Josef started as Mick ran to the blood on the counter.

"Josef, he hasn't had blood!" Mick repeated and tore open the seal at the very top of the blood pack. He poured it into the glass meant for Josef before ordering the vampire, "Wake him up. He needs to wake up."

Josef shook their familiar. The dark-haired man slightly moaned and opened his eyes to reveal a silvery film that covered what should've been chocolate brown eyes. Mick walked over and lifted the glass to the man's lips before tilting the glass so that the ambrosia of the vampires could be taken in. The glass was drained, but the blood was enough for some of his energy to return to him. The man took the glass from Mick and nodded.

"Thanks." he said his voice hoarse.

"You're-" Mick started when he heard the sound of heels click. He hadn't heard her until now and she was so close. Too close.

"Mick?" Beth asked as she walked into the open foyer of the apartment. She saw Josef, Mick and a dark-haired stranger whom she had known from-

"Oh my god." she said spotting the glass of blood in his hand. However, his eyes were not covered with a silvery film, he looked exactly the way she had seen him on TV and on the news reports.

The three got up.

"You're-" she started with amazement at the stranger, "You're- a vam...pire?"

"Um, vampires don't-" the man started when he saw Mick and Josef shake their head.

"Don't worry, she knows." Mick said and turned to Beth who still stared at the man with amazement.

"You- _You're_ -" she started again.

"Do you know each other?" Josef asked seeing Beth's face.

The man shook his head staring at the shocked blonde reporter. "I think she knows me."

"Carlos Olivera?" she asked as everyone else exchanged glances, "Umbrella. You're one of the most wanted people for the Umbrella scandal."

Mick stared at Carlos shocked. "You? You're one of the- Josef, can you-"

"I knew Mick. Actually that's what I came to tell you." Josef said turning to Carlos even thought he was addressing Mick, "Apparently, a vampire has gotten mixed up with a whole government scandal!"

"Hey, it wasn't my fault." Carlos said in his defense.

"Yeah, I believe him!" Beth interjected as everyone turned to stare at her.

"You do?" Carlos asked, "Wait, who are you?"

"Beth Turner, I work for BuzzWire." she said expecting some recognition of the internet news channel to pop into his eyes but she only saw an inquiry look. "It's an internet news channel." she explained and Carlos nodded.

"So, why do you believe me?"

"Well, first off. Umbrella's just a commercial corporation. There's no need to hire agents and to own a whole police department. Second- a nuclear explosion? There was not a big enough plant in Raccoon to cause the explosion. It would've wiped out a part of the city but not the whole city until the Arklay Range. And third- the person that accused Umbrella is not listed in the Wanted Section it's those that put up the video." Beth explained making her point quite clear.

"Alright. I get why Josef's here. I get why you're here." Mick said to Beth, "I don't know why you're here arriving at my door nearly dead!"

Carlos smiled a bit before it faded into a solemn look.

"Alright, I'm sorry for that earlier. But the people I'm traveling with don't know what I am." he said his eyes cast downward, " I don't see the reason to tell them that I'm an immortal blood-sucking nightwalker. I haven't gotten to a morgue in three days."

Mick threw an I-told-you-so look at Josef as the older vampire stared hard at Carlos.

"What the hell were you thinking?! You could've told at least Valentine and fed on her." Josef said but Carlos threw a fierce stare at the vamp.

"I wouldn't do that, Josef. Not in a thousand years."

"You and Mick." Josef added leaning on the wall as Carlos continued.

"I'm here because two weeks ago, Alice Prospero ran off for some reason."

"To get away from you." Josef added.

"You do know I can kill you, right?" Carlos said his voice deadly and his had sticking close to the gun he wore on his belt.

"Easy, guys." Beth said, "Go on. Why'd Alice leave?"

Carlos took out a cell phone and dialed the voicemail box. He then put the phone on speaker so that everyone in the room would hear whatever message was there.

"You have one saved message." came the voice of the automated voicemail announcer.

It took a moment before it actually came on.

"Carlos?" came a voice who everyone guessed was- "It's me, Alice. Listen, I'm sorry for running away. I needed to protect you- all of you. I know you're all looking for an answer and where I am. Well, I needed to take the tracking nodes away from the camp and then destroy them. First, I led them off track and then destroyed them. Umbrella's now looking at the last place you all supposedly were. Washington. If you're wondering where I am- I'm in L.A."

There was the sound of rain and a roar in the background followed by a crash. The message was dead after that.

"The cell phone belonged to a friend of mine. Jill Valentine-" he started as memory hit him, "Oh, shit."

"What?" Beth asked guessing from the vampire's, "Wait, is she here, too?! This is amazing!"

"Yeah, they're downstairs give me a moment." he said when Mick stopped him just as he was nearly out the door.

"Wait, how'd you get here if you're half dead?" he asked bringing up a point and implying something else.

Carlos understood what Mick was hinting at. "Damnit. I can't pretend to be in recovery if Alice is god knows where-"

"Either that or reveal that you're a vamp." Josef said relaxed, "I wouldn't suggest the latter by the way."

Carlos ignored the vampire's request when with superhearing he picked up a cry for help. He looked around the room and spotted the terrace. He leaned out over the rail to the balcony to see that there were vamps around the SUV. Five of them were there and one door- the driver's side was open. There was a gunshot but it didn't stop them as they clawed at the car. He could hear the gun clatter as it was thrown by one of the vamps.

"No!!!" Carlos yelled as he jumped over the railing.

"Carlos!! What the fuck?!" Mick and Josef yelled as Beth ran to look over with the two.

The three saw Carlos fight off the attackers of whoever was in the car- five were centurian vampires and two vampires- Mick recognized two of them at a visit to the Cleaner for information. They had torn apart four people that had been in a wrecked junker car. Homeless people, of course. Some vampires had no respect for human life. And these seven had apparently chosen Carlos's friends.

"Um, is it more or does Carlos seem to be a little sluggish?" Josef asked as Carlos was barely dodging the blows receiving a kick to the chest followed by a blow to the face from a young vampire.

"He only had a glass of blood. Over three days, he needs a body full of blood." Mick reminded him.

"What's wrong with you? Help him!" Beth said staring at them and then back to the fight. It was seven against one why weren't Mick and Josef going to even the score.

Josef and Mick exchanged glances and continued to watch. They saw that if they entered the battle whoever in the car would see their drop-in entrance and questions would be fired. They helplessly watched as Carlos broke three necks incapacitating the vamps for a moment. Just like a stake it would cause paralysis but it wouldn't kill them. The agent then took a wooden stake-shaped weapon and plunged it into the heart of one vamp behind him. The driver's door was about to be closed when all of a sudden one vamp stopped the door. Carlos drew a titanium knife to savagely hack the attacking vamp that had dragged out someone from the driver's seat. From where they were, Mick and Josef saw it was a woman with raven hair. Beth recognized her immediately.

"Oh my god, it's Jill Valentine." she gasped and the other two vamps looked to her before turning to Valentine who fumbled with drawing her gun which was stuck to a slip in her holster belt.

She screamed as blood splattered on her from the attaker that had dragged her out. Only a moment ago, her comrade had been deathly sick and now he had just reached them- not seeing him jump from twenty stories above them. She drew her gun and aimed for a head shot blowing the person's head off his savagely cut neck. Three men were left and one picked up Valentine who struggled against her attacker. She had been so preoccupied wondering how her friend had suddenly had his killing instincts activated that she had been open to attack. The man took her gun and held her in a headlock. A spinning heel kick from Carlos broke the neck of one other attacker before he turned to face the vampire that held Valentine with a knife glistening in view. The one vamp that had had a stake in its chest had gotten the thing removed. The paralysis had been lifted and he had Angie in his choking hold. LJ was in the hands of the last one who smirked with fangs glistening. They had been dragged with car as both of the fighters had been preoccupied.

"What the fuck?!" LJ shouted seeing the silver eyes and fangs of the man who had him in a deadly grip, "Motherfucker, it's a vampire."

"He needs help!" Beth said but Mick and Josef were already looking for weapons to aid their friend. Mick going through kitchen supplies.

"Mick, how the hell don't you have a knife!!" Josef yelled.

"I don't need one!" Mick yelled back as Josef looked for something.

"Do you need these chairs?" he asked.

"Vampire's don't exist." Jill insisted struggling hard against her captor. The man's grip tightened and Jill swallowed at the pain.

"Really?" the man asked and turned to Carlos who stood there unable to come to the aid of his friends, "Why aren't you feeding on them? You're weak as it is. C'mon, there's enough food for all of us."

"Carlos, what the fuck is this sonofabitch talking about?" Jill asked as she broke free and backhanded the man. Carlos still couldn't move for the other two would take care of LJ and Angela. The man smiled and grabbed Jill's arm and wrenched it into an impossible angle. She screamed in pain hearing a snap on her forearm.

"JILL!!" Carlos screamed approaching but the man pulled Jill back and cuffed her wrists before he held the knife at her throat.

He drew the knife only cutting her throat for a flesh wound. She winced as the blood streamed down her neck. The two that had Angela and LJ were already in their vampire visage and looked hungrilly at the hosts in their arms. Carlos at the sight of blood immediately turned vampire. Jill gasped and LJ and Angie gaped.

"Motherfucker,"LJ muttered seeing the silver eyes and fangs of his friend. The man seemed so human but apparently- Carlos drew back from the vampire hunger as he fell to his knees, weak.

The vampire with Jill shoved her down on her knees so that she was at eye-level with him and as Carlos met Jill's eyes he saw that a scared R.C.P.D officer was reflected in them. There was hurt, betrayal, fear- Carlos remembered all of a sudden why vampires hid themselves and never got attached to humans. The knowledge of being an outcast of not being...mortal.

The wound on Jill's neck was flowing freely with blood that Carlos urgently needed. Jill swallowed hard as her friend's eyes turned silver and then brown several times. Her eyes widened as she realized that he was fighting himself. And she was right, Carlos was fighting for control over his hunger and his humanity- if you could call it that.

"Feed!" the vampire ordered but Carlos shook his head.

"No!!" he yelled back.

"Alright, that's our cue." Josef said as he and Mick dove over the railing landing behind the parked SUV quietly.

"Very well," the vampire answered taking Jill up to her feet.

"Carlos!!" Jill screamed as the vampire got to his feet to aid her.

At the very moment, Mick staked the vampire holding Angie who lifted the girl up to take what little blood she had to offer and Josef took care of the one with LJ. Mick caught the girl and put her to her feet.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I don't know." LJ answered as Josef and Mick stared at him.

Angie nodded, "You're friends of Carlos?"

"Yeah." Mick said as Angie stared at him. Her green eyes pierced through his mortal image to see exactly what she saw in Carlos...a difference. It was like the Virus. Infectants can sense infectants but they can also sense when someone wasn't human.

"Where'd you come from?" LJ asked them as Angie pointed up. From where they were they saw Beth leaning over them.

"From there." she said having seen two figures jump from the balcony where the blonde was watching over them.

Josef turned to see that Jill had been knocked down by the vampire who fended himself from Carlos's attacks. He ran to help Jill to her feet but the woman struggled against them only to see that it was not an enemy. He worked on the cuffs and found he couldn't unlock them.

"He'll get the key." he assured her only to see she wasn't litening. Jill had turned to the silhouttes on the wall. She couldn't tell which figure was Carlos until she saw one had a larger range of attacks making one of them Carlos. She then watched as the silhoutte reflected what was happening and as the shadows merged into one black figure except one had a pointed weapon through its body. The figure slumped to the floor and Carlos emerged from the corner blood staining his lips. He wiped it away with the back of his hand that held something. First, he threw the key to Josef before turning to stare at his companions who looked at him with fear, but it was only LJ and Jill that were scared. Angie walked up to him and smiled. Her little hand took Carlos's. Mick and Josef exchanged glances as Jill and LJ did the same. The little girl was fearless.

"I always knew there was something different about you." she smiled.

* * *

**_So, whattya think? Waste of time? Stupid? Dumb? Should I stop writing this? Tell me. Please, Review!!!!!_**

****

**_-Redd_**


	4. Chapter 3: Immortality

**_Sorry for the long wait. So I didn't have time to edit this but I'll fix any errors when I have some time._**

**_Sorry for the mistakes._**

* * *

CHAPTER THREE: IMMORTALITY

Two days ago, Alice rode into the garage and got up a couple of floors to park her bike at an empty floor. She put the brake down on the bike and removed the helmet. The bags on her bike were filled with either guns or some sort of weapon. She was early and heard the heavy rain outside. She looked on the contacts and saw Carlos's name and dialed the number and not getting anyone she guessed he didn't want to pick up.

"Carlos-"she started and then went on with her message. Soon, the bag of weapons fell to the floor with a crash and she hung up the phone abruptly drawing the gun. Not only was there the sound of the crash, she also heard the steps of someone.

"Alice?" came a voice and she turned. There was one person left in L.A whom she could trust for one day. Just to remove the chip. Then she'd be on the move to permanently drop off the grid.

"I need your help."

0o0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Okay, so let me get this straight. For two hundred years, you've been a blood-sucking-immortal-fanged nightwalker?" LJ asked moving his sore arm.

After the little ordeal, everyone had returned to Mick's apartment and LJ, Angie, and Jill were introduced to Beth Turner. Mick was leaning against his wall of his apartment taking in the new faces. Meanwhile, Jill and her wounds were being treated by Josef, who had strangely volunteered to do it. LJ, Beth, and Angie were seated on the sofa and Carlos was standing near the window looking out and just listening. The scene was the city lit by the lights as the dark sky and moon hung over the city.

Carlos nodded in reply to LJ. "Yeah."

"And why didn't you tell us?" Jill asked him and winced as she felt the alcohol pad on her neck. "Ow."

"Sorry." Josef apologized to her.

"Jill, I couldn't." Carlos said meeting her azure eyes that were on fire with anger and was diminishing as he continued to explain. "I've hidden what I was. Every last member of our kind-" he said referring to Mick and Josef who had revealed themselves after Angie had said she saw them jump from a twenty story high balcony. "Every one of us keep the secret and are not to reveal it to mortals. People have hunted us for grudges- For things we've done in past lives. Things that never stop haunting us."

Jill's eyes softened. "And how many lives have you had?"

"Too many in which I lost friends." he replied as the pain of memories flooded back. But were blinked away as he stared at Jill and then looked at Angie.

"But they sleep in freezers." Beth added seeing Jill, LJ, and Angie stare at her in confusion. She was wondering why he hadn't been spotted in an ice box or had any mysterious disappearances.

"Oh, I'm kinda immune to do that. I can sleep like humans but once in a while I really need to be in a freezer." Carlos said answering Mick's question but not the next.

"How the hell did ya do that?" Mick asked, as far as he knew, most vampires couldn't sleep outside of freezers.

"I don't know." Carlos answered, simply. He never figured that part out. "It was after I was bitten in Raccoon though. Ever since then, I rarely needed a freezer."

"What's with being bitten?" Beth asked. She had heard of infectants during Raccoon City but never understood what it really was.

"You really are a reporter." Jill commented remarking on Beth's inquisitiveness. It never escaped Jill's notice that Beth was acting like the interrogating Terri. She was just like her asking all the questions. She was going to continue but as she opened her mouth to say something she winced. The wound on her neck stung as some bacitracin, used to get rid of bacteria, was put to the wound.

"And when were you the medic?" Carlos asked Josef. Because after he had called and had gotten a Cleaner who had taken care of all the vamps, he was already helping Jill.

"You learn a lot in four hundred years." Josef said seeing Jill's eyes widen.

"Four hundred?" she asked surprised.

"Yeah, anyways what _is_ with getting bitten?" Josef asked and Jill answered for all.

"The Virus turns people into cannibalistic undead. It's painful and after they die they come back. Once you're bitten, you're doomed to die and become one of them. Umbrella unleashed them-" Jill started.

"That's why you're wanted by the government. They want to cover it up and Umbrella controls some part of it." Beth realized and then turned to Carlos, "I can clear your names. I can help."

"It won't do. You'll just be named an accomplice." Carlos said even though he thought of the idea. But it was only dismissed a moment later, "Even if the civilians agree with you, Umbrella is hard to accuse. We don't know them as well as we want to."

Beth slumped in her seat hating the feeling of uselessness that came to her and Mick smiled.

_At least she won't get too involved with this._ Mick thought as he scrolled down something on his computer, "So, you said something about Alice Prospero, right?" he asked Carlos.

"Yeah, why?" Carlos asked when Angie looked over Mick's shoulder. She had done the hacking and Mick had e-mailed it to a hacker himself who cleared through obstacles and got what they were aiming for.

"They put a tracker into her, too. It looks like she left you all because of that." Mick guessed. His fingers were good enough on a keyboard but when it went as far as decoding he was lost.

"But?" Carlos asked feeling that added information was being omitted.

"But it looks like the tracker's been taken out. Tracked it to a local hospital area. Looks like she removed it and hacked it to remove her programming two days ago. She's got friends.

"Great and where does that leave us?" Jill asked.

"Well, it was raining two days ago." Josef said finishing with dressing the wound on Jill's neck. He then moved to the bruises that her on her arms and on her cheek. Meanwhile, Jill's eyes were on the sleeping Angie.

"What d'hell does that have anythin' to do with this?" LJ asked as Beth, Mick, and Josef stared at Carlos.

"You didn't tell them about the message?" Beth asked him.

"I was half-dead. I could barely move." Carlos answered taking out the cell phone before replaying the message so that his friends could hear it.

"Great, that does nothing. We just know that she called and that it was two days ago. That gives us nothing." Jill said as Josef examined her arm. "Ow."

"That's not good." Josef said quietly to her, "That's a broken arm."

"Well, records show that the tracker was taken out two days ago. In a perimeter like that- assuming that there is no mode of transportation- Alice would be in a five to ten mile perimeter." Mick said pulling up a map. "She's closest to the hotel district of L.A. It's close to where everyone just passes through the city."

"So, how will we find her?" Jill asked as the vampires exchanged glances.

"We can take care of that." Carlos assured as he pulled on his jacket and Josef and Mick prepared to go as well.

Beth, LJ, and Jill got up as well but the three vampires turned to them.

"Well, you're not going." Josef said to Jill even though it should've been Carlos stopping him, "Not with that arm. I'm getting my medic to come and cast that."

Jill couldn't put any protest to that. But she reluctantly sat down. Beth was about to walk forward but Mick cut her off.

"Beth, no. We don't know what we're getting into." he told her not knowing what he was getting into and with that he didn't want Beth getting into this.

"He does." Beth said pointing to Carlos who was checking his guns.

"If I was, I wouldn't be needing these." he said referring to his guns, "And two vampire friends."

"I'm not letting you get hurt." Mick said trying to persuade her and Beth surrendered. She knew Mick knew what was best when it came to getting hurt. "Stay here."

"Alright, but that still leaves me." LJ said getting ready to leave with them.

"Guns are involved." Carlos added and LJ sat down in the nearest seat- fast.

"I'm out. You vamps have fun." he said as the three walked out and the door shut.

"So." Beth said to the three, "Want to tell me more about Raccoon City?"

0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o0o

The car was where they left it and they each got in. Josef in the back, Mick at shotgun, and Carlos at the wheel. It was easy to pull out of the parked area now without the dead or either incapacitated vampires around the vehicle. Within a few minutes they were on the back roads of the city which were empty but hard to navigate.

"Alright, where do we go?" Carlos asked Mick.

"Straight ahead for a few miles and then take a right." Mick said closing the laptop, "From there we'll pick up her scent and follow her.

"Great." Josef muttered sarcastically, "If you ask me, I'm not in the mood for a hunt."

"Alright, I'll find her. But just help." Carlos said as they continued to drive towards their destination.

No one said anything and it was quiet for a few moments.

"Carlos, what does she look like?" Mick asked, "Because I have no idea who I'm looking for."

"That makes both of us." Josef added even though he didn't want to be involved. He couldn't help but be curious.

Carlos smiled, "She's at least Jill's height or taller. Has strawberry blonde hair. Ice blue eyes. Light skin-"

Josef wasn't listening to the description but the tone of how Carlos was describing her. He paused and hesitated with the next description as if he recalled her as he described her.

"Don't tell me you've fallen for her." Josef said.

"Does it matter?" Carlos asked him getting a look of disbelief from Mick and one of curiosity and caution from Josef. One which Carlos saw in the mirror.

"Yes, it does matter. This is a mortal woman we're taking about. Not some young vampire girl. Mortal. Those you get your blood from-" Mick said.

"I get it." Carlos cut in.

He already knew he was in deep water when he couldn't stop protecting her and when he couldn't stray far from her afraid that he'd lose her like so many mortals he'd lost in his life. Besides Angie, Alice was the one he had never let out of his sight. "I'm just a guardian angel-"

"Vampire." Josef interjected trying to be funny

"Guardian vampire to everyone. Nothing more than that." Carlos said with a grin.

"You sure?" Josef asked.

"Yes, I'm sure."

The older vampire leaned in his seat and gave a sigh of relief. "That's good. And I hope it stays like that."

"Take a right here." Mick informed.

"Oh, really? Why, Josef?" Carlos asked following Mick's directions.

"Because he happened to fall in love with a mortal." Mick said, "Take it from him and follow his advice."

"Yeah, well, you don't take my advice."

"Let me guess." Carlos said, "Your blonde reporter friend."

"Friend." Mick said even though he hesitated, "Look, I am not falling for anyone. But-"

He was hitting on Josef's story but he beat him to it.

"Hey, Mick. I'll tell my story!" Josef shouted making the two of them smirk. "Look, it ended badly and I don't recommend it. Alright?"

"Josef Konstantin in love?" Carlos asked to change topic seeing a hurtful memory flash in his friend's eyes.

"Shut up." Josef said as Carlos parked the car in one of the 24 hour garages.

"The hospital across the street is where the last signal came from." Mick said pointing out the view to the small one level hospital that in them middle of two tenant buildings. He looked out into the streets to see it was empty. It was a perfect time for them.

"Are they open?" Josef asked as he looked out as well.

The Private Investigator squinted and saw that the small local hospital was indeed still in use but by little. Belatedly, Mick realized hospitals needed to be open twenty-four seven.

"Of course, it's open." he said to his friend before turning to see that Carlos wasn't with them, he was still with the car.

Next to the SUV was a motorbike and Carlos stood right next to it. His were closed as if he were stuck in a dream-state and Mick knew what that meant. When vampires could pick up the scent of the past, they get caught in a state like that for only a few moments before reality took them back.

_Alice was standing next to the bike someone behind her. She turned._

"_I need to get the chip out immediately, Chase." she said turning to the Asian lady behind her._

"_Alright, want me to destroy it right afterwards?" the woman called Chase asked._

"_Please, do." Alice said._

The momentary flashback ended and the scent was only a couple of days old so it was practically strong. He turned to his friends who approached him and took in the scent as well. The image was blurry but they saw her clearly. Mick and Josef finally saw the woman that their friend had described. She had an attractive face, strawberry blonde hair, and ice blue eyes just like Carlos had told them about.

"Go to the hospital and ask for Chase Meridiam." he said having seen the ID on the woman's coat.

"And what about you?" Josef asked as he and Mick prepared to jump. The image of both women were imprinted in their mind.

"Something's not right. I'm gonna search the area." Carlos answered.

"Wait, where the hell do we meet?" Mick asked bringing up a very good point.

"If you don't get info get back to the apartment. I'll call you-" Carlos said before making a dive over the railing to the alley below. A thunder clap rang through the air as it started to signal the rain would fall.

"Damn it." Josef swore, "He could've just said he'll do the search on his own."

"What do you think about him and this Alice of his?" Mick asked as they saw someone pass underneath them and waited until they turned the corner and were out of view. From there, there was no one else.

"I think it's just like you and Beth." Josef said getting ready to jump.

"So, just friends?" Mick asked getting an inquiry look.

"Keep telling yourself that." Josef said as the two of them jumped to land on the feet as if they had made a small leap.

They then approached the hospital.

0o0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o0o

Carlos heard the thunder overhead and knew that he needed to get to the scent fast before the water fell and the smell would be washed away. Something had occurred in that alley before the talk in the garage that he had seen and then after. He could smell that faint scent of roses that fit the infectant smell which specially marked it as Alice- infectant undead gave off a sweet smell and there hadn't been any in the city which was good.

He saw the Asian woman, Chase, talking with a few men.

"_You're right. She's here to get rid of the chip." Chase said to a shadow, "I'll help her get rid of it and then you can get her. What's with her anyways?"_

"_It's something you won't understand." came the reply._

Carlos switched and fast-forwarded in time to see someone- a collapsed figure of a woman in the arms of two people. They loaded the unconscious person into the back of what looked to be a black van- with a darkened logo, but one of the octagon logos nonetheless. When he saw a flash of strawberry blonde hair and a glimpse of her face he knew.

"Alice." he muttered as he snapped out of the trance. He jumped back up to the level of the car and unlocked the car to get the location of the facility.

He smiled when he saw how close it was. A few rooftop jumps and he's make it. He knew Umbrella had taken her and he was going to get her back.

0o0o0o00oO0o0o0o0o0o

Alice groaned as she woke up. The first thing she took in were her bright surroundings. It was a white room looking exactly like the one that she was trapped in at the Raccoon City Hospital. The last thing she felt was the light-headed feeling and her heart literally skip a beat. She had lost conscious after-

_That bitch!_ she thought. Chase Meridiam was the only person she knew in L.A that had a small time hospital. They had been friends in The Hive before Chase left to take up a medical branch of her own. Turns out she was still loyal to the company.

Other than cursing the woman she thought to be her friend, Alice scolded herself for actually trusting someone out of her circle of the friends that she had left behind. Outside of them, there was no one else whom she'd trust and she made just one simple mistake. A simple mistake that gave her over to the people she hated most.

She struggled hard at the metal cuffs wondering why she couldn't use the abilities her T-Virus enabled her with.

"Won't work." came a voice as the doors slid open, "Meridiam, had made a specialized serum for you it negates the effects and abilities the T-Virus enables you with."

Meridiam had succeeded in removing the chip and had redirected her to the garage. She had gone the path, only to be met by men in black suits outside. They had easily surrounded her and though she was able to take two of the close ones out she couldn't fire her gun in the middle of a city and she was hit by some needle.

"Who the hell are you?" she asked seeing that it wasn't a doctor at all. It was one of their agents in a suit.

"Alexander Slater. It's good to finally meet you, Alice." he said with a smirk.

She just wanted to break his neck and watch as that smirk faded away and right now only her wrists were cuffed not her legs. She could just-

"If you value your life, Slater, step back." came a recommendation with a voice that Alice knew very well. Her eyes turned to the entrance where she saw a man carrying what looked like a case on one of those mobile counters wheeled around in hospitals.

Her eyes suddenly lost any remaining spark and became dull and alarmed.

"Why? What can she do?" Slater asked.

Alice took the moment and kicked him in the abdomen. He doubled over and she reached out to complete a heel kick that would surely snap the man's neck. But she felt the sting of five needles at once being buried into her arm. Immediately, the familiar memories of her experimentation in The Hive flooded back into her mind. Her hesitation gave Wesker enough time to back away and stay at a safe distance.

"You couldn't give that to her while she was stirring?" he asked as he groaned, his stomach hurting from where her foot had hardly kicked him.

Isaacs just laughed at the man. He hated the man and knew he would do something incredibly stupid, and besides, the doctor needed a distraction so he could put in that sedative. Alice's reactions become sluggish as her heightened senses blurred and dulled.

"Alice?" he asked as he approached her.

The woman barely struggled as the sedative started to take its effects on her. Soon, she'd been fine and only her abilities would be incapacitated. Isaacs just kept his malevolent grin as he took a syringe and took some blood from her arm. Infected, adapted T-Virus, crimson blood filled the entire container.

"What're you doing?" she asked weakly.

"You're special, Alice." Isaacs answered her putting the syringe in the case, "You have the cure that can save us all."

"Bullshit, you don't care about those people out there!" she replied.

"You're right. You're blood can save Umbrella. We mass produced the permanent antivirus and at the same time because the Virus infects people whether it's cured or not-"

"One is permanent infectant whether or not if he was cured?" Alice asked thinking of the only one she knew that had survived a bite.

"Yes." Isaacs nodded and brushed away the hair that fell around Alice's face. She struggled not to shudder at his touch.

"But we're not only going to just to administer the antivirus to the public." the man continued as reality sunk into Alice.

Whatever they had done to her last time. Whatever they were doing using the chip, they were going to do the same to the trillions of people that were endangered by the Virus.

"We're able to control them. Like we attempted to control you." he said.

"You failed with that." she spat as she moved her face away from his touch.

"That's where this comes in." the man answered lifting up a new shot. "We've created a more powerful microchip. One that you won't be able to remove."

Fear, for once, filled the eyes of Umbrella's main enemy.

"One that you can't fight." he added as he tilted her neck so-

Alice could barely protest or move out of the way. She knew screaming for help wouldn't do any good and she had given up on asking others for help a long time ago. She just braced herself. A servant for Umbrella- the worst thing she could ever imagine. She could feel the cold tip of the needle like the muzzle of a gun ending her life- her will- but the shot never came.

Instead, a shower of glass fell around her as Isaacs and Wesker ducked for cover. The lights were all taken out a moment later by gunshots and the two men dared not to look up for fear that the falling glass may harm them. Alice felt the metal click open and arms that pulled her away from the steel slab she had been lying down on. Her eyes barely open she saw the floor get lower and lower realizing she and the person she was with her ascending. It was impossible but right now, she wasn't sure if she believed everything that she was seeing.

Her heightened sense of smell disappeared so nothing gave her a clue as to whether this person was another infectant or not and she didn't believe what her eyes would show her. Before she knew it, they were on the roof and then another until they reached what seemed to be a garage roof.

"Stay with me." she heard the low voice of the person that had her. At that moment, with that dark and at the same time relaxing voice she knew.

"Car-los." she whispered faintly as she found herself leaning on his chest as the cold hit her skin. Usually, the cold wouldn't bother her, but now- it did and the only way she found herself warm was close to his body.

Whatever Isaacs had done to her now removed the T-Virus and its effects from her, she wanted to speak and tell Carlos she was feeling normal but she couldn't move her mouth and her throat stung. Her body tensed and Carlos told her in a soothing voice to relax.

"It's me. Just calm down." he said as she heard a car door being open and the feeling of a seat was now underneath her.

Before she lost touch with all her senses, the last thing she saw was him with chocolate brown eyes that turned silver for a moment. Then her vision spiraled and faded away.

0o0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o0o

With his heightened vampiric eyes he tried to see what had happened in the moment before he had arrived just in time to save her from another one of Isaacs's shots. From where he was he could hear three hearts, one was beating steadily, another was beating with an anxious rate, which was probably Isaacs, leaving the last fast-beating pulse to be Alice. She had been scared and that fear was what prompted him to jump in then instead of when the room would've empty.

He had seen the few moments, before his rescue, flash before his eyes before he shut off that ability and saw that she had lost consciousness. He remained emotionless as he shut the door and got into the driver's seat. He wasn't going to take her back to the apartment- he tried to start the car but it wouldn't start. He opened the hood of the car to see that nothing was wrong and attempted to start the car again. When he realized he couldn't do anything, he relented.

"Battery's dead." he muttered as he got out and closed the hood before getting back into the car.

Outside, a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky as the vampire realized that Umbrella would soon be on their trail. He turned to Alice and tried to wake her.

"C'mon." he whispered to her, "Alice, wake up."

After several attempts and fifteen minutes, Alice awoke although she felt drowsy.

"You okay?" he asked worry tainting his voice.

"Yeah." she answered and looked at him,"How'd you find me?"

"Interrogated a friend at the hospital." he lied.

"Guess you found her then." she muttered thinking of the backstabbing-

"Chase Merdiam?" he asked, "Yeah, she's working for them and is just stationed where some escapees might flee to. Speaking of which, we've got to get out of here."

"Why?" Alice asked as he helped her out of the car.

"Car's dead and- Whoa!" he said as he caught her. He had just helped her to her feet and she nearly collapsed, "Are you sure, you're alright? What did they do to you in there?"

"They-"she started unable to maintain her balance, "This may sound weird, but I think they made me human."

Carlos stared at her for a moment with disbelief before lightning flashed once again, reminding him.

"We'll talk about this when he get to a hotel." he said as he lifted her off the ground and carried her to the exit.

"How'd you save me?" she asked as they got to the bottom of the stairs and went out the back exit of the garage one with no security cameras.

"Rappelling gear and one of those automatic cable things that pull you right back up." he answered her.

Of course, that was a lie. He smashed the windows with his gun, and dove in. While in the air he had taken out two of his guns and fired at the cameras before the lights and landed on the ground on his feet. After grabbing Alice, he used his abilities to get both of them to the roof in a single leap.

He saw Alice smile at that answer as he walked with her in his arms.

"I think I can walk now." she told him.

"You sure?" he asked and she answered with one of those what-do-you-mean-I'm-sure? kind of looks. "Alright."

He set her to her feet and found that she was able to regain her balance. Some of the sedative effects were already wearing off. The two of them said nothing as they started to walk looking for a motel.

0o0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Alright, what do we do now?" Josef asked as he closed his cell phone. He called a medic from one of his staff team to report to Mick's apartment. "Car's dead. Carlos is missing and we have not idea where Chase disappeared to or where Alice is."

"Just trust, Carlos." Mick assured his friend, "He'll probably find Alice on his own."

"Yeah, probably." Josef answered as he waved down a taxi. After giving the address, he leaned back in his seat.

"So, what're we gonna tell the others?" he asked.

"Carlos is looking for Alice and will call us when he finds her." Mick answered.

Suddenly, Josef's phone rang.

"Um, Mr. Konstantin, a report on your bank shows that you've made a withdrawal."

"Really, where?"

"Um, a ATM at-" came the answer along with the address.

"That's a few blocks from the garage." Mick said easily thinking of the area.

"Well, we'll get to the others first and then go to the area." Josef came in.

"Wait, how does Carlos know the password to your account- assuming that it is him?"

"It is him. The only other person was the vamp you killed in the factory." he said not using the person's name.

"And why does he know it?"

"Because, I knew he'd get into some kind of trouble- he always does- and I told him that he could always count on me to help him." he answered, "And besides you and Beth already know the password."

"Really?"

"You met her in New York." was all Josef said as they pulled up in front of the apartment building.

Mick just nodded and in a few moments they were facing a wave of questions from Beth, LJ, Jill, and LJ.

"Don't worry. He's gone after Alice." Mick said to them as someone came in through the door and Josef saw the man he had called.

"Did you bring it?" he asked him as the man nodded.

"Yes, Mr. Konstantin." the man answered as Josef turned to Jill.

"What?" Jill asked him.

"Your arm. That's gonna need to x-rayed, but we're just gonna splint it to keep it from moving." Josef explained and Jill hesitantly walked over with the stranger into the living room as everyone went to the kitchen.

"Alright, it looks like you'll be staying here." Mick said and pointed to a hall next to the kitchen. "That leads to two guest bedrooms. They're small, but they're good enough."

The reason why he had had them was because sometimes some vampires friends would be passing through the city and they'd stay there.

"And then there's the master bedroom upstairs along with one bedroom. If you guys want those, then you can just take those." Mick said wanting to pour himself a drink but knew it wouldn't be a good site for a little girl to see. He glanced at the time to see it was sometime around eleven.

Josef was standing in the kitchen entrance and saw the three yawn.

"Well, it looks like everyone's going to sleep." he said as he got ready to walk out of there. "And that means I'm gone."

"Me, too. It's pretty late." Beth said as she walked out but Mick stopped her seeing the weather outside. "It's storming out there."

"It's alright." Beth answered, "I'll just grab a cab."

"There's a few room upstairs if you want it?" he offered.

"C'mon, stay." Angie said, "I want to hear more about your job."

Jill smiled glad that Angie had more friends outside the group.

"Alright." Beth smiled as she took a seat next to Angie. Josef just watched for a moment before turning back to the entrance.

The man that had come was already done and walked out the door first.

"Wait!" Jill called and Josef turned back to face her, "Thank you."

"Sure." Josef said flashing a smile to her before leaving. A grin was seen on her face and then she turned to see a smile on the faces of the four that were watching her. Mick and Beth even exchanged glances.

"What?" she asked when Josef walked back in.

"I forgot." he said, "Mick, we know where they are."

0o0o0o00oO0o0o0o0o0o

"Well, Mick said we were close to the hotel district." Carlos said for while his friends were in the apartment and half-an-hour away.

"Mick?" Alice asked him as they continued to walk.

"He's a long time friend of mine. Him and Josef Konstantin. Jill and the others are with him."

Alice turned to him but trusted Carlos and knew that he knew what he was doing.

"You feeling alright?" he asked her after a moment.

"I feel normal." she answered, "For once."

"That's good. So I'm guessing. No nightmares tonight?" he asked with a smile as they continued to walk.

"I guess." Alice answered looking forward to a good night's sleep having forgotten what it felt like.

When they turned a corner he gave a frustrated sigh.

"What?" she asked him when she heard him.

"We're lost." he answered her and looked around until he saw the sign of a blinking motel, "And we're heading in the wrong direction" he added as they turned to go back.

"Well, it can't get worse." Alice pointed out when the loudest thunderclap broke through the city and the rain came down in a clear shower.

Through the strong rain, Carlos turned to Alice.

"Get any worse?!" he yelled over the rain.

She laughed, "Alright, so maybe I was wrong!"

She looked up and felt the rain hit her face.

"C'mon!" Carlos yelled as he extended his hand to her.

As soon, she took his hand they both ran against the rain, the water that was pooling in the streets and sidewalks fell around them. No one in L.A- or at least around the part where they were would be up and waking especially in a storm so they were the only forms of life on the streets. Alice let out a small laugh as a car passed by on the street to splash whatever water was left onto them soaking them even more.

"Just great!" Carlos yelled making the laugh ring out even through the rain. Carlos realized that he had never heard her laugh before and the sound of her being amused put a smile to his face. The two crossed the street and stepped into the lobby of the Conrine motel.

They stopped and wrung whatever they could of their clothes and Alice wrung her hair to get rid of most the water. Carlos walked over to the young man at the desk who gave him an odd look and then looked out to the storming weather also catching sight of Alice.

"Checking in?" he asked.

Carlos nodded as he asked for a room but the man also added, "I'm sorry, but all the two bed rooms are taken."

"That's alright. One'll be fine." he said withdrawing his wallet and found the money wasn't wet at all. He paid with cash and then walked over to Alice. The two of them then disappeared into the elevator and headed to their room.

As soon as they got there, Alice saw that there was one bed.

"So, we're splitting the bed?" she asked him.

"No." he answered though the thought crossed his mind. He took the cell phone and wallet out of his jean pockets and put them on the bedside counter. "The plan was for you to sleep and for me to stay up and keep watch."

"Why?" she asked him. "You need the sleep as much as I do. If I recall correctly, you're the one who's been up doing the watch."

"It doesn't matter does it?" he asked her.

"Carlos, you're getting some sleep." she told him as she walked toward the bathroom.

"Where're you going?" he asked her.

"I'm taking a shower. My clothes should be dry if I keep it on the heater." she said wondering why she needed to explain herself.

"And what would you have for a change of clothes?" he asked her as he looked through the room finding that nothing was left in the room.

"My clothes might be dry by then." she said, "And then for once I'd get a good sleep without nightmares."

"Damn." he said audibly that made Alice turn to him with a questioning look.

"What?" she asked him.

"No, it's just that. I kinda liked it when I'd be there to wake you up." he said and realized something, "Not that I like you having nightmares about us dying or- or that-"he stumbling over his words and that never happened- well at least not to him, "You know what? I'm just gonna check if they've got some extra clothes here."

And with that he walked out the door. Alice smiled to herself and even blushed a little never having seen Carlos act that way or not know what to say. She peeled her wet clothes from her body and placed them on a rack taking the robe that was there and the towel.

"Hmn, for a cheap motel they're pretty good." she muttered as she slipped into the shower and turned on the water. The water was more cold than hot and apparently that was the only temperature. "Or not." she muttered.

Carlos stood out the door wondering why he made himself sound like an idiot in front of her. But just then one of the room service maids turned the corner.

"Um, excuse me?" he asked her and she looked up at him.

"Yes?" she answered.

"Um, this is gonna sound a little weird. But you wouldn't happen to have some other clothes in this place?" he asked.

"No, but we do have a dryer in the basement." she answered, "If you want you could use that. But there are some clothes left from previous visits. But I dunno if you want those."

"Thanks." he replied, "Where in the basement?"

"Oh, take this staircase and it will be the first room you come across."

"Thanks, again." he said and ran down the stairs.

0o0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o0o0o

"How do you know?" Beth asked Josef.

"Um, he made a withdrawal at a bank and there's only one motel in that area if that's what Carlos is gonna aim for." he answered.

"Um, so- are we going to sleep or are we going after them?" LJ yawned as Mick pulled out his phone.

"Does anyone know his number?" Mick asked.

0o0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

He was in the basement having found a loose dress shirt and a loose pair of jeans but nothing for Alice.

"Great." he muttered and the clothes were dry in a few minutes. "That was fast."

He ran up the stories with amazing speed but was surprised to find Alice was still in the shower. He put the clothes on the bed and knocked on the door.

"Alice?" he asked but there was no answer and he walked in. "Alice, you okay in there?" he asked knowing it was a stupid question.

"Oh, I'm fine. But the water's freezing!" she answered.

From where she was she saw his blurry figure through the frosted glass.

"Guess the motel's not that good." he said and she didn't see him smile. "Um, they don't have some extra clothes for you but I found a spare. They have a dryer though."

"That's good." she said wondering why she wanted to stall and in a few moments she realized why. He didn't leave even if they ran out of conversation. He stood somewhere close to the frosted glass and Alice ignoring the cold water against her, she was wondering what to do.

But she went against everything that she had done with the thoughts that this might be the only time they could actually be together. Right now, she felt normal. No Umbrella. No tracking device. She was safe from them and this was a chance being offered to her. After she wrung her hair of water, she slid the glass back revealing Carlos on the other side.

"Want something?" she asked him. She was met with chocolate brown eyes that were at first hesitative before she stepped out of the shower standing in front of him. They didn't even need to talk because the look they saw in each other's eyes was enough. Soon their lips met, in a fervent kiss.

0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o0o

"You three can stay here." Mick said as Jill and Josef headed out the door.

LJ and Angie and Beth exchanged tired glances.

"Alright, where'd the PI say the rooms were?" LJ asked.

"You weren't listening?" Beth replied.

"No." LJ answered as Beth gave him directions before turning to Angie.

"You know what?" she said, "I'll tell you some stories tomorrow. Go get some rest."

"But-" Angie started but Beth pointed towards the rooms and then looked to LJ, "You, too. I'll wait until they get back."

The little girl sighed as she got off the stool she sat on and walked over to the hallway next to the kitchen. LJ yawning and following them.

0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o

Before he knew it, Carlos felt Alice's hands slip into his shirt and he helped her remove it. He tossed it to the floor. Soon, his belt was unbuckled and the rest of his clothes followed and were scattered on the room's floor. Before the two knew it, they were on the bed and Carlos inched Alice up so that her head was resting on the pillows. His hand was caressing her side, his lips went from hers to her neck and the temptation to actually taste her blood faded as he forgot what he was. All he felt was the mortal part of him, the one that felt mortal- at least. He heard her groan and felt her hand dig into his hair while the other grasped one of his.

It was just the two of them…until- _Riiiing! Rrriing!! Rriing!_

Carlos stopped for a moment lifting his lips and his body from Alice's. She moaned feeling the warmth being replaced by a cold draft of the motel air hit her body.

"Leave it, Carlos." she whispered.

"No one knows this number." he told her, "It's probably important."

He reached over and picked up the cell phone, lying right beside Alice holding her close against him. "Hello?"

Alice leaned on his chest. His muscles formed a perfect pillow for her. From where she lay, she heard both his heartbeat and his conversation for the person was talking very loud.

"Carlos? Where the hell are you?" came the voice of someone Alice didn't know. Her hands traced his abdominal muscles as she listened for more.

"Um. I'm in a motel."

"I'm assuming you've got Alice with you then?"

"Josef- does it matter?"

"Carlos, who is that?" Alice whispered.

"Who is that?" came the other voice that Alice assumed to be Josef. "It's her isn't it? So, what motel are you guys-"

He cut himself. "You guys aren't-"

"What?" Carlos asked and then heard Mick and Jill.

"They're in a hotel? Together?" came Mick.

"Maybe we should look for them tomorrow." Jill proposed, "If they've gotten far."

"Forget it! I did not drive out into the rain and nearly get lost for nothing." Josef said.

"Wait, you're driving?" Carlos asked.

"Forget that. Carlos- you and Alice better get some clothes on and meet us in the lobby of Conrine Motel. That's the only one closest to that ATM you used."

"What makes you think that I'm-" but someone took the phone from Josef.

"Carlos, I know you and Alice fucking damn well and if you guys are alone in a motel room in the middle of a fucking storm after you saved her ass- then there's only one thing you two would be doing."

"Jill, we're not-" Alice said so that she could be heard.

"And don't even think about making it quick. Get your fucking clothes on and meet us downstairs!" Jill ordered.

"Sure, Mom." Carlos joked.

"Carlos, I swear-I will slap the shit out of you if you say that one more time." Jill said and laughed. "And then Alice'll probably slap the shit outta me for doing that."

But then the phone was taken once again, this time by Mick.

"Carlos just get outta there right now. We're in the lobby and if you're not down in five minutes-" Mick started but Carlos got the picture.

"Alright! Alright!" he said, "We're leaving."

He hung up and looked down at Alice who was laughing. "I think we should leave."

"You think?" she asked with a smile.

"Yeah, but I don't want to." he answered.

"We'll get another chance." Alice whispered their lips meeting before they got up. Alice's clothes were still damp but mostly dry and Carlos grabbed the spares and put on those that were strewn over the floor.

0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o

Josef was the one waiting downstairs and saw the two come out of the elevator. Alice was the attractive blonde that he had seen when he had taken in the memory sense.

"Alice, meet Josef Konstantin. He's a friend of mine." Carlos said as Alice and Josef shook hands. "Josef, this is Alice."

"Sorry, if we interrupted anything earlier." Josef said.

"Ha, ha." Alice replied sarcastically as Josef opened an umbrella and the three got into the car, "Where're we headed?"

"Some place safe." Carlos answered her.


	5. Chapter 4: Love and Pardons

**_Well, update on this. And I'm taking a break. With barely any reviews it looks like these fics aren't going anywhere. They're being held for ransom for at least six reviews for each story chapter._**

* * *

CHAPTER FOUR:

The trip back to Mick's place was quiet. When they had gotten in the car, Carlos had introduced Alice to Mick. And Mick told her about being a private investigator.

Josef was at the wheel and Jill was in shotgun. Carlos and Alice were in the middle seat and Mick was at the back. The rain was coming down hard making it nearly impossible to see. Carlos knew why Josef had gotten lost, but decided not to say anything.

"So," Mick said to break the awkward silence in the car. "Looks, like you don't really need my help with finding her- anymore."

Carlos smiled in reply glancing back at his friend, when Jill spoke. "Mick, can your friend really clear our names?"

"Yes, she can. Win over the public demand a case get analysts involved. Believe me, Beth can get you cleared." Mick answered recalling when Beth had cleared his name but his case didn't involved conspiracy on a corporation level.

"Yeah, there was this serial killer that framed Mick and well, Beth with the help of Josh got his name cleared." Josef smiled looking into the driver's window. He saw Carlos's shocked face and Mick shaking his head at recollection of the ordeal. "The son of a bitch was really good though." Josef said and Jill slapped him as a caution for his language, "What? I don't see a little girl in the car." he replied.

"Oh, right." Jill muttered, so used to having Angela in the car and so accustomed to reminding people not to curse although she knew it was hard for what other word could express thoughts other that shit and fuck and-

"You mean the jackass that killed one of your charges? Wait, don't tell me- he went Van Helsing on you?" Carlos asked drawing an inquiry stare from Alice. "What?" he asked her with a shrug of his shoulders before Mick answered the question.

"You guys are long time friends?" she asked him.

"Well, yeah." Carlos answered her, careful with what he told her. She was the only one that didn't know.

"Then what happened with all the Umbrella training and-"Alice started and Carlos realized she was digging a little too close to his secret.

He had already the look of fear and betrayal for keeping secrets from Jill. If he had one from Alice- god knows what he would do. If those ice blue pools ever flashed a look of betrayal, he'd- Alice's eyes locked with his in a stare that would get the truth out of him eventually. He was screwed-

"We're here." Josef said as they pulled up into the garage and Carlos hid the sigh of relief as they all got out but Josef just went to the car next to it. "Well, I'll be seeing you guys soon. It's pretty early and-"

"It's one o'clock in the morning." Alice pointed out, eyeing him carefully. She saw the look on everyone else's faces. Everyone looked uncomfortable and uneasy, suspicion clouded her eyes.

"Did I say early?" Josef asked faking a disoriented tone, "Damn, I think I'm losing it. I'm just gonna get home."

"See ya, Josef." Carlos and Mick said as they headed inside. Jill glanced back to see Josef wave goodbye before driving off. Early- vampire's time of day was the night and Jill smiled at the little attempt to fool Alice, which she bet hadn't gotten past her friend's senses without tripping some mental alarm that something was wrong.

Once in the apartment, Mick spotted Beth who lay asleep on the couch.

"Who is that?" Alice asked Carlos eyeing the blonde stranger that lay asleep.

"That's Beth Turner." Mick answered her as he lifted her from the couch. "Um, I guess she can have my room. You can take the room upstairs-"

"I'll split the room with Angie." Jill said and walked over to the guest rooms at the end of the hall where she heard LJ's snores and presumed that the two of them had headed there. She left Mick, Beth, Alice, and Carlos alone in the living room.

Now, Mick couldn't really say that there technically were three bedrooms up on the second level. There was the master bedroom, a guest room, and the freezer room in which it was ice cold. Luckily, the freezing temperature didn't spread into the other rooms or on the level.

"Where'll you sleep?" Alice asked Mick as they all got up to the second level. Mick had opened the door to a somewhat large bedroom complete with a bathroom, TV, and of course, a large bed set against the wall.

"I'll take the couch downstairs. You and Carlos can take the room over there." he said gesturing towards the opposite the master bedroom on the other side of the hall.

"Well, you can go to sleep now, Alice." Carlos told her, "I'm gonna talk to Mick, for a while."

Alice glanced at him and Carlos saw the need for sleep in her red and tired eyes. He regretted trying to sleep with her earlier when he had known she was in some way exhausted and somehow stripped of her T-Virus abilities by something that the bastards at Umbrella gave her.

"Go on." he said nodding in the direction of the room as they stepped into the hallway out of earshot for Mick, but Carlos knew Mick could still hear. Vampires could hear through walls, so listening to a conversation in an open hallway was not going to be difficult.

"You'll join me later, right?" Alice asked with a teasing smile, yet they both understood that it was just to sleep and not for any extracurricular activities.

"Promise," Carlos answered her which made Alice beam back before heading off to the other room. His eyes followed her until the door closed behind her and Mick stepped out into the hallway and closed the door behind him.

"So, that's Alice." Mick said as the two made their way to the ice room.

"Yeah," Carlos simply replied. The two of them searched for something to talk about, but it was Mick that brought up a whole story along with a past life.

"She looks nothing like Christine." Mick said and Carlos glared at him. Obviously, the topic was one that Carlos didn't want to talk about. "What?" Mick asked, "I'm just saying- You and Josef said you'd never fall for mortals and yet the two of you did. After vampire-"

"Yeah? And what about you and Coraline?" Carlos asked in turn, bringing up the past, "We've both got crazy vampire exes."

As the door to the ice room opened, a frosty breeze hit both vampires.

"I killed mine and somehow she survived it- came back and well, I don't where she is." Mick said taking a seat in the room as Carlos closed the door and leaned on the wall. Being in an icy environment relaxed the two century old vampire, who still looked in his mid-thirties despite his hundred years of witnessing history.

"Yeah, well, that's good for you. Christine is god knows where-" Carlos said with a sigh, "And I hope she's not resurfacing any time in my life."

Christine was to Carlos like Coraline was to Mick, except the only feeling Carlos had for Christine was pure hatred. Mick knew why, too.

Carlos, in his first life, had had a young sister, a seventeen year old named Isabel, who was at least thirteen when Carlos was turned. He took care of his sister as they were the only people left in the family. But Christine, whose family consisted of four vampire brothers, let her them take advantage of the teenage girl as she took Carlos away teaching him about the vampire lifestyle. Carlos had never told of what they had done to Isabel- even though Mick knew that Josef knew for Carlos and Josef had been friends back then, as well- but it was obvious because of what happened next that Isabel had been murdered. Christine hadn't expected Carlos to master his vampire abilities so fast and before Christine's vampire brothers could wipe out all trace of them being there through water, which dampened the sixth vampire sense and cleared away the scent of the past, Carlos had picked up on them. He had killed all four of them and left Christine alone to live out her immortality alone. If not for Josef, Carlos- at the early stage of vampire life- would've then turned rogue, but Josef had helped him out. Mick knew the story well-

"God, I hate that vampire." Carlos muttered with contempt.

"You said you'd never fall for a mortal." Mick said with a smile, changing topic.

"Yeah, but Alice is different." Carlos replied seeing no more use in keeping secrets. It was time to let Mick in on some secrets of his life. "She's just- I dunno how to say it. She's just amazing.

"The reason, I said I'd never fall for a mortal was because I didn't want somebody close. I'm a vampire for crying out loud- I'm gonna outlive any woman I fall for- but not her." Carlos continued his voice dreamy as he just stared off at something. "Umbrella- you know what they did to her."

"Yeah, you explained it." Mick answered knowing that Umbrella had altered Alice on a genetic level.

"Well, she doesn't have a mortal life span, Mick." Carlos explained, "She's immortal. Just not a vampire-"

"That's impossible!" Mick pointed out, "Technology hasn't come that far that they're able to create elixirs."

"Well, that's what Umbrella did. The T-Virus has made her immortal and has made her superhuman-"

"Is that why you think that you can fall for her-"

"I never knew she was immortal. Not until she mentioned it. But I knew- this is gonna sound strange- I knew that she was going to be in my life whether I liked it or not. Ever since then, I've been so close to her- When she'd have nightmares, I'd be there to wake her up- when she needs rescuing when others can't do it, I'm there-

"Mick, I think that I've been turned immortal just to be with her." he said and saw Mick was about to reply to that but he beat him to it, "Shut up, I know. It sounds ridiculous, but really. That's what I think."

"Damn, you've fallen hard for her." Mick said, "Carlos, you're in love with her!"

Carlos sighed and leaned his head against the wall. "I know, and that's what's scaring me."

"What?! You scared? Wow, I thought I'd never hear that." Mick said, "You'd jump off a helicopter. You'd charge straight into a fight defenseless- And you're scared of…love? Tell me, is there something wrong with what I just said?"

Carlos opened his mouth to reply, but Mick continued knowing that Carlos would only deny ever talking to him about this.

"Just face it, you've fallen in love with a mortal-" Mick started but was cut off.

"That's just it, Mick! I'm a vampire and she's in some terms mortal- she doesn't drink blood. She can walk in the sun without fear of dying, she can eat and taste food, and she doesn't have fangs. I can't keep hiding _what_ I am from her.

"When I saw the look, Jill and LJ gave me when they found out I was a vamp. I thought I'd die from the look of betrayal they shot at me. If she looked at me like that, forget it Mick- that'd be a silver stake to the heart." Carlos said, hoping his point had gotten across. Silver was deadly when in vampire blood and a stake to the heart was a death sentence. So, in vampire terms, Carlos meant that the look of betrayal from Alice's eyes would kill him. Mick understood it but he needed to tell his friend this- "Carlos, listen to me, do you have an idea of the feelings she has for you- is she closer to you than Jill is-"

"Yeah, the greater the betrayal-"

Mick saw he was fighting a losing battle and knew that he'd have to pull one of those lines that movies always told a love-struck hero who thought the love was star-crossed or at least forbidden.

"If she feels the same way you feel about here- I doubt that betrayal would be an emotion she would have. Shock and surprise yes- but not betrayal. If she superhuman as you described her, then I doubt that she won't accept you being other than mortal, as well." Mick explained seeing that Carlos understood him, "You see, both of you are immortal- why would she be betrayed that you're immortal, as well. Sure, immortal on a different level- but… do you get my point?"

"Yeah, but-" Carlos started and Mick sighed in frustration.

"Carlos, Jesus Christ! Look, there's a time for everything and there's gonna be a time when you're gonna need to tell her that you're a vamp. Would rather it be like how the others found out or-"

"Point taken."

"Thank you! Now, go to sleep. She's waiting for you."

"Yeah," Carlos said as he prepared to leave and then he turned to Mick who was ready to close the door as Carlos stepped out. "Um, Mick- you and Beth."

"No, you're not turning this on me, now. Just go to sleep." Mick said with a smile as Carlos laughed and walked to Alice's room. He heard Mick close the door just as he had opened the guest room door. He'd get Mick to talk about the blonde reporter some other time. But instead of going into the room, he faked it and he closed the door and went downstairs and stepped out onto the terrace to look out onto LA.

The memories of what happened in the city lingered in his memories. He had lived here with his younger sister Isabel many lifetimes ago. And he had never let go of that, but now- Now, was totally different. He had, in a way, let go of Isabel and Christine, and moved on to a battle against Umbrella. He stared out into the city and fought the feeling that told him that Christine was not gone from his life. Little did Carlos know- this feeling was right.

0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o

Glass shards were in the room. A broken camera. Several seconds of video before the black out and the gunshot coming from whatever had saved and taken Alice.

That was the scene, and sitting in the security room was a blonde surveying the ten second clip. Rewinding it over and over again- It played before her silvery filmed eyes. She watched until she paused it at a certain moment. A moment in which, she saw it through silvery eyes. She tucked her bright blonde hair behind her ear as she played the cut the footage from the film and watched it over and over. She saw it- alright. A dark figure jumping down. His body was angled so that he was able to shoot all of the cameras plus the lights in the room before he had landed on his feet and rescued Alice.

A smile appeared on her malevolent lips. She did her best with an imaging scanner trying to confirm who she thought it was. But even that wasn't able to get a frame in a hundredth of a second. It was just too fast for the camera to catch an image. But the blonde smiled. She didn't need recognition. Her memory was good enough. She whispered his name to herself and thought of meeting him again.

Just then, someone walked into the room. She turned to see that it was Wesker.

"What are you smiling at Ms. Aeris?" he asked her as he wiped away the blood on him with some hand towel.

"I know who Project Alice's rescuer is."

"Really, who?"

"A once intimate friend of mine."

Wesker laughed at her. "Really, as intimate as the other friend you brought in the other day?"

"No, that one's most recent. Alice's savior loathes me and has been for a century."

"Oh, great. Another vampire-"

"An agent of Umbrella in the Raccoon City Assignment-"

Wesker's eyes widened with amazement and interest. "Really, who?"

"Olivera. Carlos Olivera." the woman replied as she leaned in her seat.

"Aeris, you better not be kidding around. Olivera- the man involved with the scandal-"

"You mean the truth?"

"Whatever. Him?"

"Yes, do you know any other?"

Aeris smiled as she stood up. "Besides, how well is Lukas doing?"

"What do you call someone that's mixed?" Wesker asked as he turned to her.

"I call it a hybrid." Aeris answered as she walked out of the room.

0o0o0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o0o0o

It was a while before Carlos went back upstairs and into Alice's room. He kicked off his shoes as he entered and closed the door behind him. He guessed she was already deeply asleep by now. But the room was burning hot.

_She'll never know._ Carlos thought as he took off his shirt and threw it onto a chair in the corner of the room. He got in the bed, lay next to her and just relaxed. Soon, he felt an arm over his chest and Alice's body was against his side.

"It's about time, you got here." she said as she leaned on his chest. "Shirt off suits you better.

Carlos smiled slightly laughing as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer to him. "You've been awake this whole time?"

"Kind of." she whispered dreamily, "I don't know but I feel- infected again."

"T-Virus return?" he asked her feeling her hand trace the contours of his chest.

"Yeah," she said with a sigh, "I liked it better when I was more human."

Carlos was quiet for a while enjoying Alice's warm body pressed against his and her light touch moved across his chest. He kept his thoughts of her in check.

"Carlos, is everything alright?" Alice asked and the vampire snapped back to reality having been lost in his thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm fine." he whispered to her, "Get some sleep. You need it."

Alice didn't need to be told twice. She was already comfortable and her eyes were heavy. Her hand stopped on his chest. In a few minutes, she fell asleep. But in the meantime, Carlos lay awake for some time. He hadn't slept in a while and he knew he needed the rest, but something was unnerving him. He ignored it and found himself falling asleep with Alice in his arms.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o0o0o

Mick was the first to awake the next morning, pretty late in the day. The others were asleep and he heard each and every one of his guests asleep. But he smelt the scent of another vampire...four centuries year old.

"Josef?!" Mick hissed afraid that if he'd yell he'd wake some people. Josef jumped up the stairs.

"Heya, I was just-"Josef started but Mick beat him to finish the sentence.

"Checking on Jill?" Mick asked with a teasing smile.

"Ha, ha. Very funny. But I don't know which room she's in." Josef answered and looked into the room where Carlos and Alice were asleep. He could sense that Carlos was behind the doors, "I hear two heartbeats back there. Is he still sticking with Red…um, Alice?"

"Yeah," Mick said and paused thinking over something, "Josef, has Carlos ever been in love after Christine?"

"Carlos?!" Josef asked a little shocked that the topic popped up. "What? No! Him in love? Ha!"

Mick gave him a stern stare. "Josef, I'm serious. I think Carlos has fallen for that girl. You thought so, too."

"You mean like how you've fallen Beth?" Josef asked, "Look, I've done my best to warn you guys against mortals. Now, if you want to tempt Fate then go ahead. As for Carlos, look- Alice isn't really mortal…I mean, she's human enough but she's not really mortal- she's immortal-"

"You guys talk pretty loud." came a new voice as the two turned to see that Carlos stood at the door to the room. He joined the two in the hallway near to the stairs. "And so what if I've fallen for a mortal? What about you Josef? And Mick, I know you've fallen for Beth-"

"See?" Josef pointed out, "Even Carlos thinks so. Just admit it, Mick!"

"Alright, what do you want me to say? I'm in love with Beth…fine. I am." Mick said sincerely but too bad only the two vampires were there to hear, "But I'm trying to be careful. I've thought about it and I know now that this relationship is dangerous, and not only am I risking my life if I take this relationship, I'm risking hers."

"I'm sorry, Josef. But what happened to you is a perfect example of the vamp-human relationships." Mick explained making the vampires exchange glances. "And if we fall in love, we'd want an eternity with them meaning- we'll want to turn them."

The three of them knew where Mick was heading with his point and remained silent as they let him argue his point.

"So, this whole relationship with mortals-"Carlos started as the other two saw a light of hope flicker and die out.

"Is dangerous. And I'm afraid to take chances." Mick finished, "This is star-crossed."

"Wow, Mick. So you have been listening." Josef said impressed that he had been able to knock some sense into Carlos about the whole mortal relationship.

But suddenly something happened all at once.

"Carlos?"

"Josef?"

"Mick?

Alice, Jill, and Beth woke up and had each called to one vampire. The thoughts of star-crossed love were immediately washed out as if nothing had been said. The three stood at different directions. It hadn't escaped each woman's notice that two of the vampires stood completely shirtless. But only one didn't know that the three were vamps.

Carlos turned to Alice and saw her standing at the door. Mick turned to Beth who stood at the door post of the master bedroom. Josef turned and looked to see that at the bottom of the staircase stood Jill. It was as if it were an ambush. The three vamps exchanged glances before each walking towards the mortal that had called to them.

Jill smiled as Josef walked down towards her. "And why are you here and not at your corporation?"

"Thought I'd drop by to say 'Hello' to some friends." he answered with a smile. "Hello, Jill."

She smiled. "Cute," she whispered and then realized she had nothing more to say. "I've got to go and wake up a couple of people."

"Mind if I come?" Josef asked and tagged along with Jill.

"Had a good sleep?" Carlos asked Alice as he leaned on the post close to her.

"It was enjoyable until I woke up to find you weren't there." she answered slightly pouting before laughing. "It feels good to be in a home. Even if it's not mine."

"Where is your place?" Carlos asked, "You never told me you lived somewhere before the Hive."

"Well, where did I live? On the street?" she teased, "It was a long time ago somewhere in New York."

"Huh, interesting." Carlos said as he walked in the room and picked up the shirt. He was about to put it on when all of a sudden-

"Aww, why do you have to put it on?" Alice said as she looked at him and he smiled.

"Want the others to see? Because I'm totally fine without the shirt." he replied and Alice just remembered there were others.

"On in the day-" she answered him and Carlos finished it for her."

"Off at night. I can do that." he said as they headed downstairs.

Beth just waited and smiled at Mick as he approached.

"So, has he told her about being a-" she started but Mick shook his head.

"Nope." he answered knowing she was asking about Carlos revealing his vampire identity to Alice.

"Oh come on." Beth whispered, "She's the only one with the chance of finding out _not_ by accident."

"I can't reveal the secret. It's not to me that she's hanging on to." Mick said as Carlos and Alice walked downstairs. "C'mon, let's go."

"Alright." Beth relented as they headed downstairs towards the kitchen.

"You guys can relax. We'll cook." Jill offered as they walked into the kitchen and Mick, Carlos, and Josef exchanged glances. But the breakfast had gone good. No one asked questions as to why the three vamps got a red drink for it was covered as Beth brought up the idea about getting their names cleared.

"But is it in our favor that they'd believe us?" Carlos asked as he poured himself a glass of blood that passed as tomato juice in Alice's eyes.

"Yes." Beth answered positively. "They will, because if I have the permission from the network not only will you have them but the whole city that will pass and well a chain will be set off."

"But you need permission." Mick and Alice pointed out.

"I can get that today and by the end of the day, I promise, you'll have the whole city of Los Angeles behind your backs." Beth said as the others exchanged glances. They all trusted her.

0o0o0o0o0oO00o0o0o0o

"What?!" Tina asked or really yelled with emotions Beth couldn't read, "You mean to tell me that two fugitives are with your friend Mick St. John, and they're innocent? You've also met them and you're helping hide them?"

"Tina, look at it this way! Umbrella needs to own so many corporate buildings, why? Why do they have to get a high-tech and armed Security Division, own the Raccoon City Police Department, have the S.T.A.R.S, and have a Special Forces Division. Tina, this corporation sells make up products!!" Beth argued and Tina, the Head of BuzzWire realized this.

"I was just shocked Beth, but your points are gonna be good to bring a government case upon them. If we get this scoop, we'll be as famous as TMZ! No even more fame. It's a win-win situation! And you're the perfect person to cover this story, Beth. Take it."

"You got it!" Beth replied with the biggest smile she's ever flashed to the woman.

"You know it scares me how much you jump at these dangerous stories." Tina replied.

"You know you love these stories. It grabs your fame!" Beth pointed out and Tina nodded as she left.

0o0o0o00o00oO0o0o0o0o0o0o

"TV!! Haven't watched something other than the news about you guys." LJ said crashing down on the seat and pointing at Carlos and Jill who sat together on the couch. Alice was at the terrace looking out on the city. Angie was on the computer while Mick was in his office organizing the office. Josef had left with Beth and dropped her off at BuzzWire headquarters.

"Wow, LJ." Jill said sarcastically as they flashed through the different channels.

"I forgot that there were more channels on TV other than the news." LJ joked and laughed but Jill and Carlos turned to him. Jill pointed at her serious face signaling it wasn't funny at all.

"I got it!" Beth yelled as she entered the room. Even Mick heard her from his office and he walked into the room.

"Got what?" LJ asked still changing the channels with the remote as Alice and the others stood and walked over to Beth.

"Permission." Beth answered, "BuzzWire is backing you guys. Now, all we need is a story!"

"Yes!" Jill cheered as she hugged Carlos who was the closest next to her. Alice cleared her throat and smiled as she hugged him next.

Beth pulled a camera. "I'll need everyone's story." she said and turned the camera on Jill, Carlos, and Alice were stood next to each other. "Now, for it to be effective, you all need to look at the camera."

"Right." Carlos nodded with a smile as Beth turned it to them and nodded that she was recording.

"My name is Alice Prospero and I'm a former agent for Umbrella's Security Division."

"My name is Jill Valentine and I'm a former S.T.A.R.S officer of R.C.P.D that was under Umbrella."

"My name is Carlos Olivera and I'm a former Special Forces Agent that worked for one of Umbrella's hired armed squads."

"We and two innocents are the survivors of the Raccoon City Incident that Umbrella lied to you about. There was no nuclear plant that went off, but a nuclear bomb that was detonated over the heart of the city at Raccoon City Hall." Alice said and Carlos picked up.

"The truth that Umbrella wants to hide is that there was an experiment in a lab under the city itself. Something happened and it was unleashed onto the city killing hundreds in the first hours of its release." he said.

"I was one of the few who first discovered the outbreak on ground and because of that. I was suspended. To those that lost loved ones in Raccoon City, listen to us. Believe what we are saying because we know the truth." Jill said as she turned to the camera.

"It began in The Hive." Alice started, "An underground facility creating experimental bio-weapons…"

**Two Weeks Later**

"_It's been nearly two weeks since the story was released… The truth was that there was, in fact, a lab under the city as discovered by a government crew that was even able to get video of the event that catches Ms. Alice Prospero, a fighter in Raccoon City…Further investigations into the camp that was outside of Raccoon City has a laptop that has footage of the city and of the illegal projects that Umbrella ran using the government money… The corporation has been shut down… A pardon has been given to Carlos Olivera, Jill Valentine, and Alice Prospero… Those that were fugitives are now being thought of as heroes for giving the truth out to those that had lost in the city and for fighting against a corporation that has the power to kill and to cover up…"_

The TV was shut off by Mick who smiled and turned to the others.

"It's over." Beth told Jill, Alice, Carlos, Angie, and LJ. "You guys don't need to run anymore."

"You've become heroes and celebrities." Josef added tossing several magazines and a newspaper onto the desks.

"And you've been invited to a formal by the mayor of California." Mick finished up for them.

As the others relaxed, Carlos got up and walked over to the window.

"What's wrong?" Mick asked his friend and Carlos turned to them.

"Sorry, to ruin the whole party." Carlos answered, "But I have a bad feeling about this party."

"How can you? It's being hosted by the mayor himself." Beth pointed out but Carlos just nodded.

"I know that. It's not that I trust them it's just that- the party makes us all sitting ducks. It's a formal, meaning dresses and tuxes. How're we gonna hide guns-"

"We're not supposed to." Jill answered him giving him an are-you-serious? kind of look.

"Exactly! And enemies know that. We'll be sitting ducks and we'll defenseless." Carlos pointed out.

"Well, you guys won't. You're practically invincible." Beth said pointing to Mick, Josef, and Carlos but Mick shook his head. Beth realized belatedly that Alice still wasn't told the truth about the three out of four men were not technically men.

"What do you mean?" Alice asked Beth but Jill intervened having sensed the moment to break a topic.

"Well, the formal is in two days. We've got that long to find small weapons and a dress."

"Am I coming?" Angela asked but Beth shook her head.

"Sorry, sweetie." the reporter replied, "Adults only."

"LJ, that means you're not coming." the whole group said in unison and each turned to the man who sat in his own seat.

"I knew that was coming." he laughed and then stared back at them, "Now, what makes each of you think that I am formal material. I mean…Look at this." He stretched his jacket and tipped his hat. "Does that seem formal to you?"

The others exchanged glances.

"He's got a point there." Carlos said, as the others had no words left to answer the man.

"Damn right!" LJ replied with a smile as he leaned back in his seat. "Anyways, I prefer babysitting to dancing and accepting a heroism award. So, ya'll have some fun- And when I mean fun I don't mean some extra-curricular activities, hear me?"

Angela was the only one that laughed as the others stared with an I-can't-believe-you-said-that look before laughing in reply.

"No, you guys. I _am_ serious." LJ added as the others just smiled not really taking him seriously.

"Sure, you are." Alice said with a smile and turned to Carlos. "We'll get something to fit with the formal clothes-"

"Which we need to pick out." Beth pointed out.

"What will we get to fit into dresses and tuxes?!" Carlos asked.

"We'll figure out the clothes and the weaponry later." Beth answered and looked at the calendar. "We've got two days."

* * *

**_Hope you enjoyed and the next chapter has a ball and some party crashers. 6 Reviews and an update will magically appear._**

**_-Redd_**


	6. Chapter 5: Immortals

**_

* * *

_**

Well, I didn't get all the reviews I wanted but seriously I want at least five to continue with the next. Please!! Anyways, hope you enjoy this!! Revalations and a lot of things are in this.

* * *

CHAPTER FIVE:

"This is ridiculous!" Jill shouted as she tossed a dress onto the back of the door. A dress wasn't her taste at all.

"I think this is rather funny." Angela commented as Jill stuck her head out of the room to stare at the little girl.

"This may be funny to you. But you don't have to walk around looking like a damsel in distress or some pretty girl-"Jill replied as she stopped throwing the clothes.

Beth sighed as she sat there in the dress she was to wear for tonight. She had handpicked the dresses for Alice and Jill to wear, but she hadn't counted on either one of them to be unwilling the day they were to be acknowledged as heroes. Maybe the heroism screwed with their sense of formal fashion.

"C'mon, Jill. It's just one night." Beth said trying to bring up a point. "And besides, Josef, Mick, and Carlos are already ready. I've persuaded them to take a limo ahead of us in case we're late- and we are, if you don't hurry up and pick a dress. It's a simple choice, blue or lavender."

"Pick blue!" Angie interjected.

"Alright!" Jill answered and realized she hadn't heard the other voice the entire time she was yelling. "Alice?!"

"Are you done yelling Jill?" Alice asked, but no one saw the laughing smile she had in her face as she was changing in her own dressing room.

"Yeah, and how's your dress coming?" Jill asked as she pulled on the blue one. She was rather surprised she could zipper it easily.

Alice stared at herself in the mirror. She looked strange in formal wear. She wore a red dress that was rather thin and flowed nicely in the air from the mark at the knees down to hover right above the floor.

"Alice?" Angela asked as Alice opened the door to step out. Jill had stepped out into the hall as well in a beautiful cerulean blue strapless dress.

"Oh my god, it's beautiful!" Jill said looking at her friend. "Huh, who knew you could kick ass _and_ look killer in a dress?"

"I'd say the same thing about you." Alice replied as Beth looked at both of them with a smile.

"It looks like someone's gonna the night." Jill joked.

"I know three guys." Angie said quietly as the others were unable to hear her.

"Everyone ready?" Beth asked. Jill gave a reluctant nod and Alice just answered with a nod.

Finally!" the blonde reporter said with a relieved sigh. "Now, we'll need to get make up and lingerie and-" Beth started.

"Now, I remember why I hate formals." Jill said as she made her way to the door. It's not only the dress but so many other things that you need to get done.

As Beth opened the door, she saw Josef standing there.

"Hey, girls! I just wanted to see how things were-" he started when Beth slammed the door shut in his face. "Ouch, okay."

"Josef!!" came yells that told the vampire he shouldn't have done that.

"What?! I didn't know it was a crime to check in on people!" the vampire said in defense for his actions thinking it silly for them to be acting this way. "Well, it wasn't a crime last century, at least." he muttered.

"We're fine and we'll see you tonight." Jill answered him.

"Oh, hey, Jill-" he said when he heard her yell.

"Josef, go!!" she yelled and he shrugged and relented.

"Alright, fine." he said as he turned to warn Carlos and Mick not to visit the girls.

Jill leaned against the door and gave a sigh of relief. She really didn't want Josef to see her in a dress with no make-up on. It would look terrible. It would be like getting a nice outfit in the morning and leaving your bed hair sticking out.

"So, we're gonna be late?" Jill asked Beth who nodded and looked at her watch. Make-up and the rest were going to take a while. They had three hours because it was five. That wasn't going be enough.

"And your hair." Beth moaned as she thought of the schedule. "Alright, I'll send these to get nice and everything. And we're gonna go get a lot of things done."

"Beth, you don't really strike us as the formal planner type of person. Or the formal type at all." Jill said.

"You two don't either." Beth answered, "But it's for the sake of the party."

Jill and Alice exchanged agreeing glances and Angela smiled at them.

"I'm gonna help plan." the girl smiled sweetly at the two of them. Beth had promised that the little girl would help. "C'mon, we don't want to keep them waiting." the two of them said.

0o0o0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o0o

And Angie did help. She chose the hairstyles that Beth, Alice, and Jill were to have.

"Hair up in a bun."

"Straighten it."

"Pull it back into a clip."

"Have you done this before?" Jill asked her.

Angie just smiled. "I just like what's pretty."

The girl went on and helped pick out the prettiest and yet comfortable pieces of jewelry and even reminded them that they were with people that were out of the ordinary. But she was well aware that Alice didn't know about Carlos and carefully worded her words making her sound like a child.

"Well, these men are not your typical men. Where do you find a Private Investigator involved with media along with being friends with a billionaire? And how does an Umbrella agent know them." Angie said as the women were getting their hair done. It was final step. Makeup completed, jewelry on- everything was in check, save for the dress and the weaponry.

"Yeah, is it me or does something seem weird about Josef, Mick, _and_ Carlos?" Alice asked but her company immediately answered with a, "No, nothing's wrong." All at the same time.

Alice raised her eyebrow at them as if they had all hid the answer and revealed it to her.

"Guys, really-" she said, but it was then that the hairdresser smiled and said she was finished.

In a few moments, Beth and Jill were done as well and the two of them were headed back to the apartment and were ready for the formal. It was seven and an hour to eight o'clock.

"What's left to do?" Beth asked as Alice turned on the lights to the room and saw the arsenal of weapons that was laid out on the coffee table. They were light and concealable meaning they were going to be easy to hide.

"The fun part." Jill answered as she and Alice got to work on picking their weapons of choice.

Alice smiled at that and Angie just sat while Beth went to get changed.

"Alice, what happened to you?" Angie asked as if suddenly recalling something, "Why did you disappear?"

Jill looked at her friend to see that the question had taken her aback.

"Angie, do you ever have nightmares?" Alice asked as she sat across from the girl.

"Yes."

"Well, mine are worse. In mine…it's just all death." Alice explained while visions of everyone's death clouded her mind for a moment creating a pause in her reply. "It was just too much. If Umbrella did find me. All of you-"

Angie stopped her for she understood her perfectly even without words.

"I needed to protect all of you." Alice said as she leaned back with a smile. "Turns out that I couldn't trust anyone. A former friend betrayed me and Umbrella caught me."

"But Carlos saved you, didn't he?" Angela asked with a little giggle.

"Angie, sweetie, who else would risk his ass to save Alice?" Jill asked the little girl sarcastically as they both smiled, Alice did also but something came to mind. The night he rescued her they came so close to… well, she drove the thought out of her mind and focused on what happened when he had rescued her. As she tried to recall it, she realized her memory was as blurry as ever.

But something just came to her mind, memories of what she had seen that night. When she was drowsing in the car and she had seen silver eyes, a hint of fangs, the gaps of roofs disappearing beneath them- Carlos…something was wrong.

Jill and Angie left and Beth was just staying behind to make sure that everyone left.

"Beth…"Alice started with an interrogation on mind.

0o0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o0o

They stood in the hallway of the five-star hotel that had a ballroom meant for the awarding of the acknowledgement. Guests passed by them and gave a nod and smile in their direction. Carlos, Mick, and Josef sighed as they waited for their dates to turn that entrance hall and enter the wide hallway leading towards the party. There was a break in the hall where a waiting room was and it had a view of all the guests that entered the hallway. Carlos took a seat and leaned back. He was patient.

"Geez, how long can it take?" Josef asked, a little less patient than his friends. He didn't really like being in a crowd for a long time because he was constantly concerned about his secret. But Mick and Carlos looked calm and relaxed. "And how can you guys be so relaxed?" he asked them.

Carlos shrugged in reply. "Pressure doesn't really do anything to me. You guys know that."

Josef just smiled and turned to Mick waiting for an answer.

"Josef, since when have I been worried when attending a party?" he asked his friend, but before Josef could even reply, Mick's eyes were diverted as they were on someone else that turned into the hall.

Carlos had seen her before Mick did and smiled. That meant the others were right behind her.

Beth was wearing a strapless tan dress that was an inch from the ground revealed some gold stiletto heels. Her hair was pulled back into a bun and in Mick's eyes she looked absolutely-

"Go get her, tiger." Carlos joked and said in a voice that was so low that only Mick or Josef could hear.

Beth walked up to Mick with a smile on her face. He looked at his date with awed eyes.

"Wow." he said for it was all he could really think about. The dress showed her curves and her beautiful figure. The makeup she wore made her glow and well, the diamond necklace she wore just amplified her beauty even more.

"Too much?" Beth asked him as she turned in a circle seeing if anything was wrong.

"No." Mick answered her, with a smile as he took her hand and guided her away from the hallway where people were starting to crowd in.

Beth took in a full view of him as her eyes looked up and down and then turned to Carlos and Josef. Seeing Josef in a tux was just a more formal version of him in one of his casual work suits.

"Hmm, you guys clean up well." she joked. Seeing Carlos in a tux wasn't that strange and in fact was a change from the fighting gear and clothes but seeing Mick in a tux- now that was something different. He didn't have a trench coat on and the dress shirt was buttoned to the collar with a tie sealing it shut.

"Thank you." Josef answered sarcastically even though knowing the comment wasn't meant for him.

"You look-"Mick started as he looked at her again. In the distance, the host of the event came on the microphone. But Beth was too far to hear anything clearly. "_Amazing._" he breathed out even though he knew there were more words. Beautiful seemed too cliché when coming to events like this-

"Wait, where are-"Carlos started but Beth cut in.

"Don't worry. They're coming." she assured them and motioned towards the hall. They're going to meet us at the entrance to the party."

"You sure?" Josef asked hearing the music starting to play as they entered the room.

The ballroom was enormous and was housed in another sect of the hotel and had its own floor that seemed to be at least two stories up. The ceiling was high and a glittering, crystal chandelier hung from the roof illuminating the room with the help of some other lights. The dance floor was in the center and a there was a pathway between that and the tables which was arranged for the guests to enjoy something to eat.

"Of-" the reporter started but she cut herself off as she gestured Josef to look behind him.

Jill tried not to show her anger as she stormed down the hallway, her heels clicking as she entered.

"Beth, I am going to-"she cried but Josef intercepted her and pulled her onto the dance floor as the slow music began to play.

"Relax, Jill." Josef said looking down at her and what she was wearing. The cerulean blue dress was cut right above the ankles revealing a pair of blue shoes to match. She wore a glittering bracelet and the makeup brought out her dark blue eyes and her hair was slightly pulled back and braided and held by a sparkling, yet ornate clip. "You look fine."

"Great, I'm here and all I look is fine." Jill replied and Josef sighed. _Why does she always do that?_ he asked himself, referring to when Jill always finds something bad to say about a situation.

"Alright, dazzling- extravagant-" he said throwing big words he knew were-

"You do not know how to flatter someone, do you?" Jill asked with a smile which was what the vampire was aiming for anyways.

"Well, in four hundred years, flattery's changed." he answered her as they swept across the dance floor with the other couples that had joined the dance.

The three that remained stood where they were and smiled as they watched from afar.

"Well, there's a pair I thought I'd never see." Carlos said sarcastically although he was happy the two of them were actually…well, how could he say it.

But he got no answer. Usually, he'd expect Beth to come up and say something else- maybe to agree. But no answer.

"Oh, come on. I wasn't that far off-" he started and turned to them to see that they weren't looking at him. His stare followed theirs and just right about the time when she entered the room.

All of a sudden, his world stopped, and time was halted for a moment. She had entered cautiously as if scared, and she was wearing a strapless red dress that hovered above the floor and flowed nicely. Her figure was outlined nicely but not too much that it left nothing for the imagination. Her strawberry hair fell was slightly straightened to show it's real length was somewhere down to shoulder.

Sure, to Carlos, Alice had been attractive in Raccoon with ripped jeans, a mesh shirt with another underneath and maybe blood…but that was explained for his part. Thing is…nothing compared to now- the way she looked when she wasn't fighting a war. The way she would look when she didn't have to fight.

Beth exchanged glances with Mick as they saw the effect the two were having on each other. Beth walked up to Carlos beaming as she whispered her message, "I picked out the dress. Enjoy." she teased before Mick took her hand and led her off.

"Are you trying to set them up?" Mick asked laughing as he guided her through the crowds that watched the dancers.

"What's wrong with that?" Beth asked him as they walked over to the tables at the far side of the room.

"Vampire and humans don't work out." Mick reminded her, that anti-vampire vampire side of him taking over once more.

"Well, you don't know until you try." Beth said as sky blue eyes met with dark brown. Mick just smiled at his date as the moonlight lit her features. But he looked out the window next to them.

It was right next to the table and the moon strode in as they took a seat. They were just there because of invitation and because…well, what would the others do without them?

Mick stared out the window an ominous sense overwhelming him. Beth caught the spark in the vampire's eye. She had gotten used to spotting that. It meant trouble…usually.

"Mick, what's wrong?" she asked as Mick picked it up. A scent of a vampire and something else- something that was too alien to identify even with heightened senses.

"Something's not right." he answered but Beth assured him.

"What can go wrong? The least someone could do is trash the formal." she told him which didn't make the vampire relax. He knew that something was going to happen. He had a feeling that Carlos was right, they were sitting ducks out here and someone or something was coming.

Meanwhile, Alice walked up to Carlos as Beth and Mick disappeared into the deluge of people that crowded the edges of the dance floor to see who amongst the dancers their friends were. The smile Alice had on her face turned into one of embarrassment as she approached her date.

"I look really stupid don't I?" she asked him.

"No-"Carlos answered and cleared his throat along with his thoughts, "No, you look…very beautiful."

Alice couldn't hide the blush that colored her cheeks. "Thank you." she replied and spotted blue on the dance floor. She looked amazed as her eyes followed the two dancers. "Is that…Jill and Josef?"

Carlos turned to see them. "Yeah, that's them." he said with a nod as he took her hand. "Want to dance?"

Alice smiled and a little nervousness showed. "I'm warning you. I'm not that good." she said as the song ended and some upbeat song took its place. The host announced the song and noticed several couples leave the dance floor. Carlos saw Josef who gave a nod as there were a few couples now and spotlights were on each of them.

An intro began to play and Carlos pulled Alice to him. "But you do know how, right?" Carlos asked her and Alice nodded. "Alright then-"

The music began and the dancers were off. Meanwhile, Mick and Beth found talk to occupy their time.

"Are you going to take any more cases or-"Beth started to ask but Mick shook his head.

"Not right now." he answered, "Gut feeling tells me I'm gonna pretty busy."

Beth nodded. She knew to trust Mick and his gut feelings usually, they saved a whole lot of lives. Suddenly, a strong decayed scent struck Mick. His face showed utter disgust at the presence of the smell.

"You okay?" Beth asked while the vampire tried to figure out what the smell was.

He finally nailed down that it was the scent of a vampire that he could smell, a very ancient vampire. His eyes lit up with alarm as he looked out the window and saw the figure of a woman making her way towards the entrance. Blonde hair was reflected in the moonlight and her deadly stride was enough to match and confirm Mick's thoughts.

"What's wrong?" Beth asked seeing Mick's fearful reaction.

"She's back." Mick muttered getting ready to make his way to warn Carlos and Josef.

"Who?" Beth asked him and looked out the window, but saw no one, "Who's back?"

"Christine Aeris." Mick muttered more to himself than to answer his date, but his next comment was meant for her to hear. "Christine is Carlos's ex and she's brought something with her."

"Wait, vampire flame?" Beth asked and thoughts of Coraline being Mick's ex flooded her mind. Memories she wanted to forget flashed before her, but she hid it from her date.

"Yeah, she and Carlos are mortal enemies, now, because of something that happened in the past." Mick said as he pushed his way through the crowd. The music was drawing to a close. "Long story." he said to Beth who, he knew, was about to ask and she was just going to.

Mick searched and found Josef with Jill on one side of the floor and Carlos with Alice were on the other. Both couples were so close to each other, the intimate dance pulling their bodies closer.

"What dance is this?" Mick asked Beth.

"Tango?" Beth asked in reply just watching the dancers, "I don't know."

The music ended and the couples were trapped in very intimate positions. Jill was pressed against Josef her hand against his chest and his on her back while their free hands met. Meanwhile, Carlos and Alice were in a similar position except he had caught her leg when he had pulled her back from her final turn and pulled her against him.

"See?" Carlos gasped as he was out of breath, his chest and Alice's were pressing against each other's as they tried to catch their breath, "Not so bad?"

Alice was about to reply when all of a sudden, the doors that were closed for the event were knocked down. People cleared an immediate path revealing the people on the dance floor. But neither Carlos nor Alice were alarmed. He felt the tip of a blade as his hand ran down her leg and the thin dress at Alice's calf. He smiled as his hand slipped up and grabbed a blade from a slot as a whole row of them was strapped to her leg.

"Sorry, party over!!" came a familiar voice that filled Carlos with utter hate. He pulled Alice behind him and threw the blade straight at the vampiress that stood with a towering figure behind her.

"Carlos, it's Christine!" Mick yelled in warning as Beth silently started to direct the people out through the back exit where the orchestra used to enter the building.

"Now you tell me!" Carlos answered back as people started to crowd his view of the blonde vampire. But when he caught glimpses of her, he saw her malevolent smile.

People screamed when Carlos hurled the blade that struck the woman in the shoulder. But they knew who was on their side and who was most likely to kill them. The vampire woman laughed, but it soon faded to a cry of pain as she pulled out the blade and her hand burned. It clattered as it crashed and fell on to the floor. There was an unmistakable smell of burning flesh that spread throughout the room. But the people had gotten out and no one but the group was left with the intruders.

"Carlos, now is that a way to treat your ex?" she teased seeing the woman that he stood in front of to protect. "Trying to poison me with a silver blade?"

"Ex?" Alice whispered into Carlos's ear. Not ignoring the part about silver.

"She's nothing to me." Carlos said aloud enough for the intruder and the stranger to hear.

The ballroom was empty as people had been cleared. Josef and Mick had pulled Beth and Jill behind some overturned tables before they themselves walked out and stood in view.

"Now, that's just mean." Christine said to him. "I turned you, Carlos. I freed you from death. I-"

"That's always their reason." Mick whispered to Josef who laughed. It was audible to most of the people in the room. But Alice didn't ignore what she said.

"Turned?" she asked, her curiosity sparked, "What does she mean?"

Christine laughed, "You didn't tell her?"

"Tell me what?" Alice asked and it was then that Mick and Josef moved and attacked the two intruders; but the stranger with Christine laughed and blew them back with some invisible force. A force that only Alice knew so well.

"Josef!!"

"Mick!!" came the shuts from Beth and Jill as they watched as their dates flew across the ballroom and crash down to fall to the floor with a loud thud

Carlos drew out the silencer from his suit and assembled it easily. The pieces were enough to fit in the jacket pocket he wore therefore making it a chosen weapon.

"He's an infectant." Alice said alarmed with a mix of fear in her voice.

'He's a vampire, too.' Carlos wanted to add, but knew that would only get Alice asking questions. And right now, he didn't really need that.

Alice wondered who the infectant was but the stranger could barely be seen as they shadow overwhelmed his features. When he stepped into the light, Alice regretted ever wondering what this thing looked like.

It was a horrible creature looking worse than Nemesis. It had tentacles that formed many limbs to replace the arms that it lost. It was over six feet tall and it's eyes were silver white. What looked like sharpened teeth could be seen as it stalked forward towards her and-

"Carlos, glad to see me?" came a voice that received another shock expression from Carlos who didn't reply to the creature.

"Lukas." he said as he pushed Alice back protectively. "This fight is between you and me. Leave the rest of them out of this."

"Um.. how about? No." Christine answered as she leapt and lunged at Carlos who pushed Alice out of the way and towards Jill and Beth. But the infectant creature approached her, his eyes glinting with a malevolent glare.

Alice watched as Josef and Mick jumped from where they were and flew through the air to land at either side of the man that Carlos had identified as Lukas. Alice drew a blade and threw it to hit the infectant right in the head causing him to stumble backward and give time for Josef to run to Beth and Jill who were taking cover behind an overturned table. Jill was armed with a small handgun that was able to be strapped to her leg without anyone seeing the outline of the figure.

She came out from her hiding place and with dead aim, attempted to shoot off Lukas's head, but she hit his eyes temporarily blinding him. He sent telepathic blasts throughout the whole area and Alice pulled Mick down and away to save him from the powerful blasts.

"C'mon, we need to get out of here!" Josef said urgently to the others.

"Alice, go!" Mick said trying to hide his vampire visage, "Carlos and I will handle this."

Mick then left the safety of the cover he and Alice hid just as Lukas's eyesight came back due to the fast regeneration that he had. The young vampire had no time to see the telepathic blast that had been aimed at him that threw him to the wall.

"Mick!" Beth cried as she ran to him and helped him up. "C'mon, let's get out of here!"

Jill shot at the creature and Alice threw her last blade at him before all of them except for Carlos headed towards the exit. Carlos had overpowered his enemy and threw her over to the side. He had the silencer in hand.

"Lukas! Lukas help me!" the woman cried as the creature turned from the escaping group to the woman that had beckoned to him. He was far and with his big figure he wouldn't be able to run and save her. But he was able to do something else.

Alice heard the cry and turned to see that the creature sent a telepathic wave that ripped up at the floor and sent Carlos flying to hit the walls nearest to the entrance way that had a shattered pair of doors.

"Carlos." she muttered and looked to her friends that were well on their way out and to safety. It was a simple choice that she made. She got out and closed the doors to the exit. There was a lock on the outside that she used making sure that nobody from the outside would be able to come to the ballroom.

"Alice!" Jill yelled as she looked back to see her friend close the doors on them but Josef heard the extra click that Jill was incapable of hearing without heightened senses. She was about to run back but Josef grabbed her wrist.

"No! She's locked us out. It's only her and Carlos now." he told her, but Jill struggled against his grip.

"Let go! Josef, we need to help them. That thing nearly killed Mick!" Jill argued as she tried to pull back her wrist.

"We can't do anything to help them. Look, Carlos's survived two centuries, I don't think this one will be any different." Josef said trying to assure Jill but she wouldn't go.

"Jill, listen to him. We need to get Mick out of here!" Beth said holding the vampire up. The telekinetic blast must've hit something hard.

"We'll lose them and then we'll lose the war against Umbrella!" Jill screamed at them. Her frustration building. She wanted to take the gun to Josef's hand and thought about shooting him off her. But Josef knew Jill was not going to go while she was conscious and he wasn't going to knock her out cold. She would probably fight him to keep consciousness. Only one thought came to mind.

"Forgive me, Jill." he told her.

"Josef?" Beth asked quietly.

"For what?" Jill asked him. But before Josef answered her, he took on a vampire visage and bit into her wrist that he held on to. Jill cried out as she felt her body give up on her. She couldn't explain the sensations that ran through her body. Pain, pleasure, fear, elation…Her body just melted. Josef caught her and but didn't release her from his blood-sucking grip. He still took her blood.

"Josef!" Beth yelled reminding the vampire of where he was and who he was with. The centurian vampire released the mortal from his jaw and let her collapse into his arms.

"What did you do to her?" Beth asked him as she let Mick lean against the wall.

"It's her first bite." Josef explained as he lifted Jill up.

"I wasn't like that when Mick bit me for the first time." Beth pointed out to him.

"He didn't drain you as much as I did her." Josef said as Mick just looked at him with silver-glazed eyes.

"Josef…" he started but Beth helped him off the wall and they headed towards the exit.

"No now, Mick. I don't need a moral code lecture." Josef said.

But as they all left, they heard it. An ear-piercing scream crying, "No!!"

0o0o0o0o00oO0o0o0o0o0o0o

She couldn't believe it. Carlos got up from where he was and the woman rushed to him with a weapon in her hands. A silver stake that Alice knew to be deadly. Lukas just stood there with a sadistic smile on his face as Christine plunged the stake into Carlos's chest. There was a sharp cry and gasp. A sickening crack could be heard with enhanced senses. Enraged, Alice's power massed. Lukas had heard her speeding heartbeat and turned to attack her. But was met with something else.

Alice threw a telekinetic blast that sent both the blonde and the towering creature out the windows at the end of the room. The ballroom was only a story up so the fall wasn't long and it didn't hurt that much. But Alice didn't care about them being hurt. She was worried about her date that had a silver spike jutting out of his chest. He was choking and gasping for air as Alice ran to him. She had torn her dress in order to do so faster.

"Carlos-"she whispered and then looked down at him. Blood oozed from the wound and she tore open the dress shirt to see the stake had hit him close to the heart and the veins were revealed in the skin as it swelled with a horrible silver taint. "Oh my god, Carlos-"

"I'm fine." Carlos gasped blatantly lying.

"Goddamnit, Carlos, you're not fine!" Alice wanted to scream as something went off at the entrance of the ballroom.

You didn't have to be superhuman to hear that it had been some sort of bomb and the flames resulting from the blast were heading right at them. Carlos saw Death flying in and knew it would be quick. But he had no movement left in him to shield Alice from the deadly flames, even though it was more fatal to him than to her. But the fire didn't hit them at all. It had moved around them.

_What the-_ he thought but looked to Alice to see her arms outstretched forming a telekinetic shield against the flames. Carlos could feel the heat hit his skin, but the deadly fire didn't even reach out to him. As soon as the flames caught fire on their surroundings and as soon as they were not in immediate danger, Alice let the shield fall and let the massive headache dull her senses. But she looked over to her date who had a pale and sick complexion, like the day when she had met him in the cafeteria of the school.

"Carlos." she whispered and looked like she had difficulty choosing her words. "Carlos, I know."

The vampire swallowed hard. Half because he was worried about what she _did_ know and half because his throat was sore and dry.

"No, what?" he asked knowing he should've dropped the subject, but went against moral code.

"I know about your secret. Mick's secret and Josef's! I know about you guys." she answered looked as if she had broken some tragic or traitorous news.

"And what is that? That we've been friends since high school?" Carlos said with a joke in his voice, but he was doing his best to keep her away from the topic.

"No." Alice said with all seriousness that hinted to Carlos that she did know. "I know that…that you're a… a vampire."

Carlos's chocolate brown eyes stared at her. "What?" he asked as if it were a bizarre statement, which it was, if he had been a mortal.

"Carlos, you can't stop hiding it." she said, "The others didn't do such a good job of keeping it a secret either."

"What do you mean?" Carlos asked her.

"That night…" she said as she took in that their surroundings were slowly smoldering. "That night when you saved me from Umbrella's control. I wasn't as knocked out as you thought I was."

She took in a moment to read the expression on his face before she continued. "I saw the roofs of buildings disappear beneath us. I thought I was dreaming but it was so hard to convince myself that. And then when I saw you…With silver eyes and fangs- my imagination went wild in dreams. But I forced myself not to believe it because I thought it was just a dream."

"Who told you otherwise?" Carlos asked her as if trying to get the information out of her.

"I figured it out. I finally got it out of Beth and then Jill when we were in the limo on our way here, and I told them not to tell you or the other two."

Carlos smiled. "Wow, and all this time I was worrying about _telling you_ that I was a vampire."

"It wasn't going to be so hard." Alice said her eyes looking at the wound before meeting his gaze, "I was rather happy to find out that you weren't mortal. Meant that there was something that could hold us closer together."

"Together." Carlos muttered, a word he hadn't really used with someone special.

"Yeah." Alice said as her wrist moved closer to his mouth. "You need it."

She watched as Carlos's eyes lit with horror and he made a feeble attempt to move away but the poison was already getting into his system and he could barely move without it hurting him.

"No!!" he shouted at her and looked away even though he could see the flowing blood through her veins pulse. His eyes had turned silver for a moment but he controlled the animal that was raging inside of him to take her blood. He had primal instincts and soon it was going to overwhelm him. "No, not you. Not yours."

"Carlos, you'll die!!" Alice shouted as she moved her wrist closer to his mouth. She saw the silvery white film take over chocolate brown eyes.

"Alice…" he whispered as he took her wrist and forced himself up feeling the sword pierce his body as he did so, but he restrained the yell, "This is going to hurt." he warned.

It was all he said before he dug his fangs into her forearm. A sharp cry escaped from Alice's lips for it was indeed painful. It felt as if her arm had been pierced right through, but it soon, she felt another emotion taint her senses. It was…pleasure. She moaned and bit into her own lip as she closed her eyes as she could feel her lifeblood leaving her. She could still feel his fangs in her skin and his tongue on her skin guiding the blood into his mouth. All of a sudden, she started to feel numb. The feeling was starting to creep up on her and began to make her weak.

"Carlos…" she whispered in warning that she was going to collapse, but she couldn't get it out any longer. A lot of her crimson tainted blood had left her, but she prayed and hoped that it was enough for Carlos to survive and get them out of there because as she allowed him to drain her she knew she wasn't going to be able to get them out of there.

Soon, her senses spiraled and her sight faded away into black. All she saw was that the ballroom was smoldering and the fatal flames were approaching them.

* * *

**_Did anyone see this one coming?! Please tell me what you think. Five reviews to continue. Remember._**

**_-Redd_**


	7. Chapter 6: The Turning Point

**_Sorry but this was lost to my flash drive which was lost for a long time. Hope you enjoy this._**

* * *

CHAPTER SIX:

She moaned as she stirred. Her blue eyes fluttered as she woke up. Her only companion in the room saw this and approached the bed where she lay.

"Morning, sleeping beauty." she heard someone say, but she couldn't really tell who was talking because her vision was still blurry.

Her eyesight however cleared up and she could see the person sitting beside her on the bed. His dark brown hair and green eyes showed deep concern for her and locked with her confused gaze.

"Jill, are you okay?" he asked her, but she didn't answer him. A look of anger flashed in her eyes along with a hint of betrayal. She sat up and launched a punch that would have broken his nose for sure if he had not caught her fist.

"How-" she started shocked when she saw him smile. Usually, when she'd throw a punch- even if she was drunk or sleepy- that punch would hit that person and hit them hard.

"Vampire, remember?" he asked with a smirk on his face as he released her fist.

"What did you do to me?" she asked him as she looked at her wrist and saw two puncture wounds. It wasn't like two holes punched into her wrist, it was sloppy like something had bitten her hard, and that was what happened.

"I bit you." he answered simply as if it were an everyday act, "It was the only way to get you out of there and to safety."

"You could've gotten me out differently-" she started but was cut off with him laughing.

"Doing what?" he asked her, curious. "Carrying you out of there? I think you would've shot me when I put you to your feet."

Jill laughed at that as Josef's hand took the wrist with the bite scar on it. He gently outlined the small puncture wounds on her wrist as if afraid that his vampire touch would reopen the small wounds.

He laughed a little, "You know, you're really stubborn." When he said that, Jill beamed at him. Their eyes met for a moment before- "Get some sleep, Jill." Josef suggested as he gently leaned her back onto the soft pillows. The gesture was not protested by Jill as she allowed him to lean her back.

"Where are we?" she inquired, not really recognizing the room she was in.

"Mick's place." he answered her simply as he got off the bed.

"Alice and Carlos?" she asked as Josef got off the bed. She had wanted to stay to help her friends, but Josef, who had cared about her safety, had gotten her away from them. She had some right as to inquire of their conditions or at least their whereabouts.

The vampire stopped before answering her, as if deciding whether or not to tell her the whole thing or a part of it, the whole truth or maybe a lie. "Mick and I went back to the ballroom with Beth. Cops were all over the place, but one of Beth's cop friends allowed us to survey the scene. There were no ashes meaning they didn't die in the fire-"

"Fire?!" she asked about to sit upright but her head spiraled as she jolted up and she eased back onto the pillows with a groan. Josef was about to lean her back but stopped himself when he saw that Jill could do it on her own.

"Don't worry about them or the fire. Point is: Carlos and Alice are alive. But we have no clue of where they went." he told her and partly lied. He was just giving her the answer she was looking for: Alice and Carlos were alive.

"Alright." Jill said as she closed her eyes and relaxed. Her mind just floated away and she fell into a peaceful sleep.

Josef watched her until she fell asleep. He took in all the details about her as if this was going to be the last time he'd see her. He noticed that her jet black hair was mussed, for earlier Beth had helped to undo her hairstyle so that she wouldn't feel uncomfortable as she slept. Her light skin caught the scant sunlight that was able to pierce through the blinds and shine its light on her. And as she slept, she looked so placid and relaxed. Josef forced himself to look away for the sunlight reminded him of one thing. One thing that was different between the two of them- he was immortal and she was not. Too bad it didn't change the fact that Josef thought Jill to be very- Again, the vampire forced himself to look away and left her- closing the door behind him to allow her some rest from the events of the previous night.

It had been early morning when Beth forced him and Mick to go and check the ballroom out. Personally, the two vamps preferred the afternoon, better yet night, where they wouldn't have to worry about looking strange in the sunlight. However, Beth was able to persuade Mick and he, in turn, persuaded Josef to go. In the end, they saw that the ballroom had been set on fire and the remains of the place were either charred or left in ashes. However, none of the ashes belonged to Carlos, for vampire ashes are different from ash in general, and there wasn't a body- so Alice was not dead. That was when the scent of the past came in helpful and revealed to the two vamps what happened.

They saw that Carlos had fed on Alice's blood to counteract the silver the poisoning, which had been given to him when Christine plunged a silver stake into his chest. From there, the two vampires continued to search through the past to get what happened next. Then, both Josef and Mick were both surprised, as was Carlos, when they heard she had been told the truth by Beth and Jill and had seen Carlos's vampire visage the night of her rescue. It was shocking to the vampires that humans were the ones that had revealed the secret and not the vampires. If it had been another mortal, and not Alice, then Josef and Mick would've considered warning Jill and Beth not to do that- but it had been Alice they had told. After all, she had been the only person that had not found out about their secret. As they continued to watch, they saw Carlos almost drain Alice before he carried her out of the fiery ballroom and ran out into the night.

Now, he hadn't told the whole story to Jill, but it wasn't like he lied to her completely- he just didn't tell her the entire truth. He knew where Carlos and Alice were, or at least where Carlos took Alice. Either way, there was only one other safe haven besides Mick and Josef's place that Carlos knew about in California.

0o0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o0o0o

She felt like falling out of paradise as she started to awake. The pleasure she had felt from the bite was still ringing through her mind and brought up those tickling sensations. But as she stirred, she lost the elated feeling and reluctantly returned to consciousness. Her ice blue eyes opened slowly. She moaned slightly as she stretched to rid the sleep from her muscles. After a while, her eyesight and vision became a little clearer.

"Alice?" came a worried voice, but she didn't need any super powers to know who was with her.

She was lying on the bed alone, but Carlos sat on a seat next to the bed, brushing away her strawberry blonde locks. Carlos noticed that her hair was mussed and her skin was pale- yet she still managed to look incredibly amazing.

"Are you alright?" he asked her, his voice soft and quiet.

She smiled a little weakly. "I'm fine." she replied. "What happened?"

"After you fainted, I carried you out of there and brought you here." he answered her.

"And where is here?" Alice smiled at him. She knew it wasn't Mick's place for she didn't remember it having this room.

"A safe place." he assured her. He took her wrist, the one which he bit, and examined the wound. The puncture marks had scarred over leaving it as a permanent mark on her flesh.

"I've gotta thank you." he whispered to her as he lay down by her side.

"For what?" Alice asked him.

"For saving my life." he answered her, breaking their locked gaze for a moment. Only he, and probably by now Mick and Josef, knew what he had done- or almost had. He had nearly turned her. At least, he was in the process of it. The first stage, was to drain the potential vamp- the mortal- and Carlos had done that. All he had to do was to feed her his blood and then-

"What's wrong?" Alice asked breaking his thought line.

Carlos hesitated before answering her. "I- nothing." The answer was followed by a reassuring grin. "Go to sleep, Alice. You need the rest."

"And what will you do?" she whispered.

"Don't worry about me." he said as he stood up, "I can take care of myself."

Alice nodded in reply before she closed her eyes. Carlos just watched her and, as soon as he thought she was asleep, he sighed and leaned on the wall nearest to the door. He tried to relax for moment when suddenly his cell phone, in his pocket, vibrated.

"Geez-" he whispered as he picked up the phone and left the room closing the door behind him cautiously, so not to disturb Alice. "Hello?"

"Carlos, please tell me you're at the beach house." came Josef's voice.

"Where else would I be?" he asked him as he walked into the living and took a seat on the sofa.

"And Alice is with you?"

"Of course."

"And she's not a vampire, right?"

The question stunned Carlos for a moment and his hesitation worried the other vampire on the other side.

"God, Carlos- please tell me-" he started.

"No!" Carlos cut in urgently. "Josef, I-"

"Mick and I saw what happened. She saved your life, I know, but you'd need to drain her in order for both of you to live. By the way-"

"Josef, she's fine. I almost drained her- completely taking all her blood and almost taking all of it… There's a big difference!"

"Alright! I was gonna ask if Alice was alright."

"She's-" Carlos answered opening the door to check on her even though it had only been a couple of minutes since he was last with her. But he never finished his answer because Alice was gone.

"Car-" Josef started but was cut off.

"I gotta go." came the abrupt interruption and before Josef had time to say anything he heard the phone snap close.

Carlos looked around the room. _She was just here!_ he thought as he looked into the bathroom and large walk-in closets. If there was any attack, in her condition, Alice would basically be a helpless mortal. Now, defenseless would be with martial arts training but no weapons whatsoever and Carlos knew that Alice would be able to defend herself with just that and her T-Virus abilities; but helpless meant no T-Virus abilities, no martial arts, and no weapons because her body basically did not have all that strength.

Tired of looking for her, Carlos used his vampiric hearing ability and searched the area for her. He heard her along with the waves of the ocean's low tide. She was outside…on the beach. The sun was still setting and placed pretty high in the sky. It was going to be a while until nightfall. But sunset or not…the presence of the sun was keeping Carlos away from her. He approached the sliding doors to the balcony which had a staircase leading to the sandy beach. From where he stood, he could see her. She was lying on a towel, her dress was in shreds and half burnt. He could see that the waves gently rolled onto the sands and reached her feet before being pulled back into the ocean only to return. He smiled to himself before sliding open the door. He easily jumped over the railing and landed on the ground with a mild thud. Only vamps and infectants would have heard his near silent footsteps.

Alice didn't hear a thing, but suddenly part of the sun was blocked. She smiled before opening her eyes. She could only see his silhouette against the blinding setting sun. But the smile quickly faded.

"Carlos!" she shouted, "What're you doing out here?!"

He laughed as he sat next to her on the sandy beach. "I can't come and check on you?"

"But the sun-" she started.

"It's setting. It's not going to do any harm." he lied. He knew it didn't matter what time of day it was, the sun always posed a danger.

"Oh." Alice muttered as she leaned back onto the towel believing him.

"What're _you_ doing out here?" he asked her.

"I love the ocean. Love the water." she answered him. "My hometown was landlocked but every summer my whole family and I would go to the beach."

Carlos grinned as he glanced at her. There was a serene smile painted on her face as she told him, her eyes closed as she took in the setting sun's rays.

"I'd wake up every morning just to go to the seashore and I'd swim in the ocean everyday." she said as her blue eyes opened and her gaze met his.

"Everyday?" he asked her and she answered with a nod.

"Every single day we were there." she said with a laugh as she sat up and stared at the blue waters. Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind.

Smiling, she stood up and ran towards the water.

"Alice?!" Carlos called after her.

She stopped and ran back to him, grabbing his hand and pulling him up.

"C'mon!" she smiled and pulled harder until he was on his feet. But Alice let go running until she was up to her calves in ocean water. "Carlos."

He just stood at the water's edge as if the salty water was poisonous silver.

"What? Vamps and oceans not good together?" Alice teased as she walked up to him kicking the water at him.

"No, it's just the last time I was in an ocean, I nearly drowned." he said somberly making the mirthful expression on Alice's face fade quickly to a look of shock and sympathy.

"Carlos, why didn't you tell me?" she asked him standing in front of him, the water rolling over both of their feet. "What happened?"

He sighed and looked at the setting sun for a moment.

"Remember that towering bulk you met?" he asked.

"You mean tall, pale, and ugly?" Alice joked.

Carlos actually laughed at that. "Yeah, well, once upon a time he was just like me-"

"What?! That project be a thoughtful, caring, hottie-"

"Huh, hottie?" he asked, with a wry grin.

"Yeah, why not? I think the others are getting to me." she giggled. "Now, was he really-"

"No. I was actually going for a centurion vampire that was under the radar." he said finishing what he had mentioned previously. 'Oh.' Alice mouthed making Carlos smile.

"And you almost ended six feet underwater- how?"

"We got into a fight. He didn't want me to leave Christine- they're siblings, you know." he said and got answer when he saw her eyes widen with surprise. "Anyways, he cheated and I was knocked out cold. When I come to I find myself tied up and he throws me off a ship- Luckily, he didn't do a thorough body search and I had a knife- A silver knife."

"What kind of vampire carries his own poison?" Alice asked him her face showing confusion.

"Hey, there are rouge vamps out on the streets." he replied in his defense. "Okay, long story short- after I cut myself free, the waves washed me to shore and I lost the blade- Now, only silver can scar a vampire and this blade sliced me clean across my chest."

Alice shook her head, perplexed. "Wait, I haven't seen a scar on your chest."

She saw his face light up with a smile and realizing the truth, she playfully hit him. "You goddamn liar!" she smiled as Carlos wrapped his arms around her and chuckled.

"Yeah, and you bought the whole thing until the end." he pointed out, Alice body firmly pressed against his.

"So, what was the whole point of that?" she asked, "Why tell that to me? Are you hydrophobic-"

"No, I just wanted you like this." he said referring to how they were at the moment. "I couldn't get you with you going for the water and all."

"You really don't think things through all the way, do you?" she asked knowing there were plenty of other things he could've done.

"I usually improvise or wing it." he replied.

"Yeah, righ-!" she started before all of a sudden she was pulled down to the sandy beach and the waters successfully landing on Carlos. The ocean waves were now at their sides. "I knew it."

"Mmhmm." Carlos murmured. "You know me well."

He was about to kiss her when Alice lifted her body from his.

"Nah-ah. Not that easy." she said teasingly. She broke into a run for the waters once again.

Carlos got up and sighed, "She was serious when she said she loved the ocean." He followed her into the shining waters.

0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o0o

"That bitch!" Christine screamed as she and Lukas walked into the Umbrella lab.

There was a smile on Slater's face as he saw the two returning.

"Too hard for you, Aeris?" he teased. Isaacs looked up from the microscope to glare at the man that was second in charge to him in the Lab.

"You failed when she was restrained, Slater!! What does that say about you?!" Christine snapped as she took a seat and moved her shoulder. Suddenly, with a sickening crack she straightened her dislocated shoulder.

"Your precious Project Alice had vampiric help." Lukas informed as he was morphed into his somewhat less bulkier form and looked more humanlike. "Carlos Olivera. Mick . Josef Konstantin. They are only three of the vampires in LA-"

"Konstantin?" Isaacs asked.

"Yes." Christine replied, "He's the head of the corporation-"

"Yes. Yes. I know." the doctor replied in a hurry as he rushed to his computer and began to type a series of codes. "He's probably the one who is a big support to the group- financially. Take him out and we can work our way to the others."

"Take him out- how?" Slater asked.

Isaacs plan never included any violence, leaving all of that up to Christine, Lukas, and himself. The ball for example…Isaacs had just told them to crash the formal and capture Project Alice. It was actually the trio themselves that planned the attack.

"Just do it." came the order. "Be creative. I just want Konstantin down and out."

Once again, the three agents exchanged glances. It was their job to do the dirty work as usual.

0o0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o0o

They were somewhere in the shallows where the waves of low tide couldn't touch or bother either of them. Her legs were wrapped around his waist.

"Now, what was the hardest part of all this?" Alice asked as their lips met.

"Now, that you ask," Carlos started to answer, "I really don't remember."

The sun was now orange and the sky was a mixture of pink, purple, red, and hints of blue streaked across the sky. He held her so that her back was to the sun and the sky was behind her as a background.

"You're beautiful." he whispered to her.

"Thanks." she said, "You're not that bad yourself."

"What happened to being a hottie?" he asked her with a laugh.

"You take things too seriously." Alice replied with a smile as she kissed him.

All of a sudden, the two of them were on the sand, Carlos on top.

"What do you want to do now?" Alice asked, "You know, it's almost your time of day." She was referring to the setting sun behind the both of them.

"I've got ideas." he replied. "And you?"

"Well, first we can take a shower and get the sand off and then, well-" she hinted, mischievously.

Carlos stood up and pulled Alice up with him holding her close to him. "You up to it?" he was still worried, for it was not even twenty four hours ago that he had nearly pushed her to the turning point.

She smiled and started to walk ahead, slowly. He let her walk ahead for at least halfway before Alice turned to him.

"Oh, come on!" she shouted at him, "How can you catch up to me now?!"

With a small grin, Carlos could feel the small stinging pain of the sun rays subside as he ran with inhumane speed to her, picked her up and ran up the stairs all the way up to the balcony over the sand.

"Believe me, I can catch up." he said to her as he put her to her feet. "Now, what did you say you wanted first?"

Without another word, Alice pulled Carlos to her and opened the sliding door behind her. The two of them slipped inside and slammed it shut behind them.

0o0o0o0oO0o0o0o0o0o

"Christine, what's our plan?" asked Lukas with a throaty growl that was natural to his voice ever since he was turned into a hybrid.

"Hurt him emotionally." Christine answered as she walked over to the computer where Slater was sitting in front of.

"And exactly how do you know that will cause him to be no more problem?" Slater asked as Christine slapped his feet off the edge and he removed them and sat right.

"Well, I happen to know Konstantin pretty well." she answered as she typed in something, "He fell for a mortal a while ago."

"How long ago?"

"Fifty years, maybe?" she told him.

"That's 'a while' ?" Slater asked.

"Compared to four centuries. Yes." Lukas answered this time.

Slater ignored him and got on to asking for the plan.

"Kill the girl." Christine replied simply.

"Simple. Involves murder. No problem." Slater said with approval and glanced over at the towering bulk that once looked like a human man.

"Sounds like fun." the hybrid answered as he shape shifted into his more atrocious form.

"Ugh, get back to your other form 'cause you make me wanna puke." Slater said disgusted as he looked away and at the computer screen.

"Lukas, he's right. We won't be doing anything, though. I've got a contact in New York that can take her out easily."

"Alright, fine." Slater said, "And Alice?"

"She's gonna be hard to get to. Carlos isn't an easy vamp to kill. Neither is Mick… or Josef." Christine answered as she wrapped a lock of hair around her index finger. "Carlos is close to Alice- maybe…"

"I know what you're thinking Aeris and the goal is to capture Alice not hurt her to get to Olivera. He's a vampire, what do we need with a vamp?" Slater asked. Christine rolled her eyes and gestured towards her brother.

"I thought Isaacs wanted a new toy." she answered, "What better than another vamp?"

"Tell your plan to Isaacs and while you're at it make sure you make that phone call. I want Konstantin out as soon as possible. Maybe we can get rid of more people as well." Slater hissed as he walked out of the room.

Lukas stood in the corner, tentacles twisted in anger and rage. "He shouldn't talk to you like that. Next time, I'll wring his throat."

Christine held up her hand, "No, he's cute. I want him."

"You hate the man." Lukas said thinking about all the spats the two of them had. He knew nothing of flirting, but if he did he would have noticed that the two of them occasionally flirted and then the argument and insults started.

"I'm toying with him." Christine said with a wry smile as she stared at nothing in particular.

"Like you did with Carlos?"

Christine stopped and glared at her older brother, the question bringing up the past. "Listen, you weren't supposed to kill the girl! I said you could do anything to her, but kill her! He was supposed to be mine forever."

"The Elders already recruited him. He's special and you know that. If you quit playing with him a long time ago we could have had one of the most powerful vampires on our side. Now, we're reduced to being experiments and helping out mad mortals."

"We can take care of them easily." Christine said as she stood up and walked over to him. "But is the plan still the same? Or do we have to change it?"

"Carlos has the girl with him. If Isaacs is right about her and you think his feelings are strong then she'll be the strongest hybrid. Her blood will fuse with the vampiric blood easily-"

At the mention of all that blood, Christine's eyes opened wide and she let out a frustrated scream that made Slater run into the room.

"What's wrong?!" he yelled aiming his question at Christine instead of Lukas.

"Olivera isn't dead!" Christine said as she paced, her heels clicking against the floor. "The silver would have killed him and the fire would have ashed him but a friend of mine never found a trace of vampire ash."

"So, what?!" Slater said as he leaned against the wall. His ears still ringing from the scream.

"The T-Virus always remains in blood."

"So?"

"I stabbed Carlos with a silver stake. I missed his heart, but I still poisoned him. The only way for him to survive was to drain that bitch!"

"I don't get it."

"He's a hybrid!" Christine screamed, making Slater and Lukas stare at her incredulously but it didn't take long for them to do the math and put the pieces together.

"More news for you to tell Isaacs." Slater muttered, "By the way, can you call your contact and get rid of whatever girl Konstantin was involved with."

"What's the rush?" Lukas asked as he walked towards the exit. "The girl's in a coma for life."

"And where're you going?" Slater asked.

"Getting some fresh air." Lukas answered as he remained in his humanoid form and walked out leaving Christine and Slater alone.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

He had been tempted…oh, so tempted to drink her blood. When she screamed his name and arched her back, her blood pulsed through her body like raging rapids driving a bloodlust through him like a stake. But somehow, he found what little humanity he had and gripped onto that control staying with her, driving them both to a thundering climax which had them both screaming.

It was only later, when he woke up to find himself with her in his arms that he regretted ever meeting her. He knew it was wrong on so many levels. Mortal and human relationships ended with the vampire turning the mortal and them separating later in life when they've had enough of each other. It seemed to be that love could fade with time. He wanted to be with her, live in her world and not fear the sun, but it was impossible. He would have to let go of her eventually, but after that he was sure he'd drive a silver stake through his own heart than live without her. Cliché be damned, he loved her, but unlike the stories of which the vamp gets the girl for life, the reality was that the vamp would get the girl killed in the end.

"Carlos?" Her voice broke his thoughts and he looked at her. The moonlight touched her face and made her pale, but still- "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." he lied.

"I know that when you say 'nothing', it means that there's something."

He had to laugh at that. They had known each other for a short time, but it took that long for them to know each other pretty well.

"Us." he reluctantly answered.

"Thinking about letting me go sometime in your immortal life?" she asked, making him tense. There was no humor in her tone. "I know too goddamn well. You're taking another regret trip- thinking that this will never work and that I'll end up dead or something-"

"Alice, we're from different worlds-" he started to argue when she cut him off.

"No, there's two worlds here. The mortal and the supernatural. At least you belong to one where there are others like you. I'm the only one who's a freak of nature-"

"No you're not-"

"Oh, really. There's no one else. I'm an experiment. I'm the only one." she broke his gaze and looked away. They were quiet for a while.

Carlos knew that she was different, but that was what made her special. Sometimes people want to be special and when they are they don't want to be, most of the time it's people that don't want to be special that find out they're not normal and they spend the rest of their lives trying to be what they aren't and never can be. He knew that Alice had excepted herself, she just couldn't stand the fact that she was alone.

"If we could be in the same world then, maybe you wouldn't feel so isolated." Carlos whispered, "But I'll always be here…Always."

"You have the power to put us in the same world."

Carlos forgot how to breathe for a moment. Her implication stung him and he prayed that she wasn't thinking about- "What?"

"Turn me."

He moved away from her and got up only to sit on the edge of the bed. "Do you know what you're asking me to do?"

"I'm not mortal so there's no reason to be stuck in the gaps."

"I'm not ending your life just so you could be in mine." Carlos said, "You're asking me to leave on the cusp between life and death, to feed you blood, to take away the sun from your life, take away simple pleasure like eating food and walking in the park, and to keep you from living in the mortal world. Believe me, you may be alone and special but at least you can have normal things."

Alice stared at him, or really at his back since he turned away from her. All she wanted was to be normal, she couldn't do that in the ordinary world when she wasn't a superhuman but she hoped she'd be able to be normal in his world. However, when she heard everything she'd lose thoughts came into her head.

"You'd lose a lot and only have me and a couple of friends for eternity. I'm not going to give you that life." he said, his voice tainted with regret and pain.

"I don't care about what I'd lose." she whispered as she wrapped her arms around her naked body pressed against his back, "I don't-"

"I do." he whispered, his voice barely audible.

"We'll be together, don't you want that?" she asked.

"At the cost of you losing your humanity." He slightly turned to face her but only caught her face through peripheral vision.

"I lost it the day they plunged that needle into my arm. I'm not human- I don't want to be. Carlos, please- I want to be with you."

At that he turned to face her and looked into ice blue eyes that were pleading with him. She lightly kissed before pulling him down so that he was on top of her.

"Alice." he whispered when their kiss broke. He moved to her neck and heard the blood rush through her veins. He heard take a deep breath. "Tell me to stop."

"Turn me." she said, her hand found his nape while the other ran down the contours of his back.

"I'm sorry," he whispered before he lost control and let the animal within him claw its way to the surface. A moment later, he buried his fangs in her neck and took what little blood she had left.

When there was barely any blood left in her body, he bit his own wrist and let the blood flow into her mouth. It would take hours before she woke up but he was searching for a sign that the turning was a success. If it was, the bite at her neck would scar over becoming what looked to be a birthmark. It took a moment, but it did. The turn was successful- she was a vampire…now he wanted to tear out his own heart for taking away any chance at a normal life that she had.

* * *

**_Please review, guys. Love you._**

**_-Redd_**


End file.
